Tanzanians shine in SA swimming competition
Dar es Salaam. Female swimmers, Natalia Ladha (12) and Isabella Powell, have made the country proud after winning gold medals in the just ended South Africa Level 3 Regional Championship held at the Ellis Park swimming pool in Johannesburg.
Natalia won a gold medal in a backstroke 200 metre race and Isabella Powell did the same in 50 metre butterfly to get the chance at the podium in an event that attracted over 700 swimmers from various African countries.
The event featured 82 clubs while Tanzania Swim Squad (TSS) was represented by eight swimmers.
Apart from Natalia and Isabella, other swimmers who formed Tanzania’s squad in the competition were Peter Itatiro, Nabeel Gahhu, Ria Save, Sophia Latiff, Aravind Raghavendran and Niamh Powell.
Besides winning two medals, the swimmers also managed to improve their personal best time (PBs) in the tough ever competition, nurture their skills and gain international exposures. According to the results, the swimmers managed to qualify for 25 finals as the girl swimmers were placed 12th among the 82 teams.
Natalia competed in 13 events and managed to qualify for the finals in nine events in which she finished fourth in eight events.
“It was not an easy event to me. I struggled to make my country proud and manage to win one gold medal despite the challenging climate which was very cold. It was between 15 to 20 centigrade while we were coming from the city with an average of 28-30 and above centigrade,” said Natalia, who studies at the Dar es Salaam International Academy (DIA) at Masaki.
She added that even water in the pool was very cold, but fighting spirits made her win a medal although she was competing for the first time.
“This is just a start on my way to Junior Olympics qualification. I also target to meet qualification in senior Olympics if I reach the age category. South African Regional 3 swimming competition has shown what I’m supposed to do in my career,” said Natalia who swims for the Taliss-IST swimming club.
She explained that she has learnt many things concerning with the game and called on all Tanzanian swimmers to build a culture of competing in various international comepetitions in order to gauge their skills in the modern swimming pools
