The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
WHILE swimming is one of the sports that has failed to shed its “minority” tag, it remains a discipline that has rewarded Zimbabwe the most in terms of medals at the Olympic Games since 1980.
Despite bringing Olympic joy to the country through the exploits of Kirsty Coventry, swimming has failed to attract wider participation by athletes from different backgrounds. Swimming has contributed seven of the eight medals that Zimbabwe has won at the Olympics, but still struggles for greater recognition.
However, despite all that several clubs have emerged in Bulawayo that are aimed at nurturing future stars. One such entity is Barracudas Swimming Club, whose athletes have been doing well in the local circuit.
The club’s swimmers were at their best at the recently held Matabeleland Championships that were held from 27 November to 29 November at Hillside Teachers College.
Although the club is relatively young, having been formed in 2011 by Diana Stirling, it has grown to become one of the biggest with 40 swimmers, mostly juniors.
One of the coaches at the club, Lorna Riley said they were deliberately recruiting young swimmers to “ensure we grow with them”. Most of their swimmers are 12 years and below.
Stirling incepted Barracudas at Christian Brothers College in 2011, where it is still based, to create an opportunity for boys at the school to develop their swimming skills and also to improve the performance of the water polo team. She however, later recruited outsiders after realising there was a huge interest in the club.
Riley said they believed there is a lot of young talent that can be developed to compete at international level.
“We have been identifying young swimmers with potential and roping them into the club and what is exciting is they are already showing a lot of potential with their performances at regional and national events. We are taking them on board as youngsters as we would like to grow with them and ensure their potential is developed and they receive quality coaching. Our aim is to build slowly and gradually,” said Riley.
Riley, who holds a coaching qualification from the international governing body of swimming, FINA, said 15 of their swimmers had already met the qualifying times for the national championships that would be held in Harare in February next year.
Among Barracudas’ swimmers who excelled at the Mat’land Championships include CBC student Grant Smith (14), who was the overall runner-up in his age group with 15-year-old Girls College pupil, Jesicca McAllister also being runner-up in her age group, Kristy Simon (17) also of Girls College won her respective age group, while Farhaan May (12) of Petra was runner up in the under 12 with Whitestone pupil Cory Werrett (11), who broke a backstroke record in his age category, coming third.
Codie Selman (10, Carmel) and Dean Jones (10, Petra) won medals in the freestyle and breaststroke in the under 10 section respectively.
Riley said eight-year-old Onye Onovo of Whitestone has shown immense talent and has great potential to make it big in the future as she has been competition with older swimmers in the 10 and under category and emerging among the top three in events she takes part in.
Eron Bent (10) of Carmel Miriam Maphosa (10) of Convent and Munashe Bera (10) also of Convent scooped bronze medals in the backstroke (boys), backstroke (girls) and freestyle (girls) respectively at the championships.
Among their ranks is Wendy Mpofu, whom she said is a talented swimmer but was facing financial challenges attending practice sessions on a regular basis. Mpofu is daughter to Northend Swimming Pool lifesaver, Peter Mpofu.
The club coaches’ include Stirling, Riley and Tara Stirling, who is in charge of junior who train at Bulawayo Adventist High School in suburbs.
Riley, who is also the Zimbabwe Swimming Board chairperson, said lack of swimming pools particularly at Government schools was hindering the growth of the sport adding a lot of talent could be lost due to non-availability of the facilities.
She said she was however, pleased that some schools, that include Milton Junior, Khumalo and Baines, were now making efforts to repair pools that had been lying derelict adding this would see more pupils taking part in the sport.
Riley however, bemoaned the lack of teachers who were adequately qualified in swimming.
“It is unfortunate you have teachers who are yet to master swimming being in charge of the sport which means the children would learn little. We have situations where teachers are only comfortable with pupils using the shallow end of the pool because they would be afraid that if any mishap were to occur it could result in death as they would not be able to jump in and save a drowning student,” she said.
“Swimming training should also be incorporated at tertiary institutions to make it easier for teachers to train pupils when they would have been deployed.”
Riley also decried the unavailability of the City Pool that has been undergoing repairs following poor workmanship that was done during renovations last year of the Region 5 under-20 Youth Games as well as failure by the Bulawayo City Council to repair and maintain pools in the western suburbs specially in Mpopoma and Luveve.
She said although traditionally no swimmers have emerged from the western areas, opening up the pools could arouse interest in the sport.
