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Coach excited about swimmers performance at World Championships
What you need to know:
- Despite the fact that swimmers did not win medals, they had managed to improve their personal best times (PBs) in the event that featured the top swimmers in the world
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania national swimming team coach Michael Livingstone has been satisfied with the standard shown by seven swimmers who represented the country in the World Junior Aquatic Championships held in Netanya, Israel.
Tanzania was represented by seven swimmers, namely Sophia Latiff and Natalia Ladha, who competed in the women’s category, while Romeo Asubisye, Aryan BhattBhatt, Peter Itatiro, Delbert Ipilinga, and Michael Joseph featured in the men’s events.
In the event, the national swimming team broke the 2019 national record in the 4 x 100m mixed medley relay in Hungary of 5:05.55, set by Kayla Temba, Christian Shirima, Dennis Mhini, and Laila Rashid. The event saw Natalia Ladha, Delbert Ipilinga, Aryan BhattBhatt, and Sophia Latiff set a new record of 4:36.70.
The swimmers, Romeo Mwaipasi, Natalia Ladha, Sophia Latiff, and Aryan Bhattbhatt, also set another new record in the 4 x 100m mixed freestyle relay after clocking 4:06.75.
The Tanzania swimmers also continued to set new records in relay, whereby Romeo Mwaipasi, Delbert Ipilinga, Aryan BhattBhatt and Michael Joseph recorded 4:19.29 to break the record set in Hungary in 2019 by Dennis Mhini, Christian Shirima, Delvin Barick, and Christopher Fitzpatrick, who clocked 4:30.22.
Livingstone said that despite the fact that the swimmers did not win medals, they had managed to improve their personal best times (PBs) in the event that featured the top swimmers in the world. “I told the swimmers before the championships that they were supposed to struggle to improve their personal best times, and they did it.
Their next step now is to improve their times again at the next international championships. “Our swimmers still have time to improve their swimming standards,” said Livingstone.
Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) Secretary General Inviolata Itatiro said they had been impressed by the swimmers’ performance, and the results had given them some challenge to fight hard in order to make the game develop.
According to Inviolata, currently, TSA is struggling to improve the standard of the game in the country, although it is still facing some challenges, including a lack of sponsors and infrastructure such as a modern 50-metre swimming pool.
“The results have encouraged us; as you know, we do not have modern swimming facilities that could make us perform well in international competitions when compared with other countries,” she said.
For his part, swimmer Delbert Ipilinga admitted the event was very tough and managed to set new PBs.
“We have done well, as we managed to improve our time and learn a lot through the championships,” said Delbert.
