Swimmers told not to take Olympic spots for granted
Tanzanian swimmers Ammaar Ghadiyali and Magdalena Moshi during the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The duo will have to cancel their programmes and jet into the country for the National Swimming Championship if they harbour Rio 2016 dreams. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The Zone IV event, which will be held in Mauritius, will also serve as a pre-2016 Olympic qualifier, meaning that all foreign-based swimmers wishing to represent the country at the 2016 Rio Games must come back home for this weekend’s tournament.
Dar es Salaam. Only swimmers who will qualify from the national championship will be considered for the African Swimming Confederation (Cana) Zone IV tournament, according to the Tanzania Swimming Associations (TSA).
The Zone IV event, which will be held in Mauritius, will also serve as a pre-2016 Olympic qualifier, meaning that all foreign-based swimmers wishing to represent the country at the 2016 Rio Games must come back home for this weekend’s tournament.
The championship that will determine who flies to Mauritius will take place at Heaven of Peace Academy (Hopac).
TSA secretary general Ramadhan Namkoveka told The Citizen that they will not take any swimmer who did not compete at the national championship for the Olympics, which Brazil hosts in August.
“All swimmers who want to go to Rio de Janeiro must start with the national championship this weekend,” Namkoveka said.
“Those with the best time will qualify for the Cana Zone IV tournament and from there our coaching panel will go through their marks and select a team that will travel to Brazil for the quadrennial showpiece.
“Those who won’t show up on Saturday should count themselves out of the Rio Games, so I call upon all swimmers who are outside the country to come back and compete.”
However, it remains to be seen whether the foreign-based swimmers like Magdalena Moshi will come for the national championship.
Moshi, a Tanzanian based in Adelaide, Australia, represented the country at the 2012 Summer Olympics where she competed in the women’s 100 metre freestyle and finished in the 45th place overall in the heats.
“They have to prove to us that they deserve a place in the Team Tanzania, so we have already instructed all swimmers to compete at the Hopac meet,’” stressed Namkoveka.
Other swimmers in foreign countries are Sonia Tumiotto (England), Collins Saliboko, Aliasgar Karimejee (England), Mariam Foum (Egypt), Ammar Ghadiyali (Canada), Catherine Mason (Kenya) and Hilal Hilal (UAE).
The Cana Zone IV competition will involve the swimmers from Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
