Tanzania swimmers placed 8th in African event

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania junior swimmers were ranked eighth overall out of 42 countries in the just ended African swimming championships held in Accra, Ghana.

Apart from that, Tanzania was also ranked 14th out of 42 countries in the seniors category, whereby only one swimmer, Collins Saliboko, swam for the country.

According to the results released by the African swimming federation (Cana), Tanzania collected 156 points after combined results by both men and women.

With the results, Tanzania topped the other East African countries including Kenya, Uganda and Burundi.

Kenya and Uganda, both were placed ninth after collecting 123 points each and Burundi in the 18th slot with 24 points.

South Africa were placed at the top with 1,218 points overall, followed by Egypt that scored 1,153 points and Morocco were third with 480 points.

The other countries with their points and positions in brackets are Mozambique (4th, points), Namibia (5th, 467 points), Senegal (6th, 294 points) and Botswana who were placed seventh after collecting 218 points.

Among the top 20 with points in brackets are Tunisia (116), Angola (108), Nigeria (69), Ghana (66), Seychelles (63 ), Cape Verde (56), Cameroon (24), Burundi (21), Zambia (21) and Zimbabwe who collected 17 points.

In the seniors’ category, South Africa also emerged at the top while Tanzania were ranked 18th out of 42 countries after fielding one swimmer, captain Collins Saliboko, who swam his heart out for his nation.

Tanzania were represented by seven swimmers who competitively featured the events to put Tanzania on the map. Eighth swimmer Peter Itatiro had injured shoulder and did not compete.

On the final day of the championship, Collins compete in the men’s 50m freestyle. Collins improved his time from 24.96 to 24.55 to be ranked 17th out of 43 swimmers.

The last day of the junior championships started with the boys aged 18 and under in the 50m freestyle event. William Chengula (15) and Ethan Alimanya (15), both competed in the event.

Ethan recorded a time of 27.69 to be ranked 24th of 38 swimmers. His new record is an improvement from his seed time of 28.45. William was seeded with no seed time and recorded 29.21 to finish 31st.

The last event for the girls aged 17 and under was of the 200m backstroke in which Tanzania fielded Ria Save (15) and Natalia Ladha (14). Natalia finished 9th out of 13th swimmers at a recorded time of 2:42.08 and improved her seed time of 2:43.18 while Ria finished 11th at a time of 2:52.58 and improved her seed time of 3:01.89.

Delbert Ipilinga (15) competed in the 200m individual medley last event for the boys aged 18 and under. He finished at a time of 2:40.40 to be ranked 13th out of 20 competitors.