The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
THE Matabeleland Swimming Board has introduced open water swimming with the first event set to be held next week weekend at Ncema Dam.
Open water is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers as opposed to a swimming pool and usually involves longer distances.
The first open water competition had been scheduled for yesterday (Saturday) but was postponed to allow senior swimmers to attend the inter-schools event in Harare.
Matabeleland Swimming Board chairperson, Megan Nesbitt said they want to encourage the swimmers to try out a different aspect of the sport.
“In addition to the regular seeded and junior league galas (this season), we also have a couple of open-water swims for those keen on trying out a different aspect of the sport,” she stated in her opening statement.
The category is included in the Cana Zones 4 Championships that Zimbabwe takes part in but the country has previously not taken part that section.
In unveiling this season’s calendar, Nessbit revealed Bulawayo will be hosting the senior nationals that are slated for early next year from 8 to 12 January.
The Matabeleland championships, where the team that will represent the province will be selected, will be held from 28 November to 1 December.
The province has already held a quadathon event and one gala.
Stingrays Swimming Academy took the lead on the points table after the first gala as they accumulated a combined team score of 301 points followed by Barracudas Swimming Club at 286
Points while Affiliated Crusaders was on third with 253 points.
Penguins Club took fourth place after amassing 198 points and on fifth position was School of Swimming (191), followed by The Falcons Swimming Club (61) with BG Dolphins taking seventh place as they were a point behind while the Zambesi Tigers had 24 points and St James were ninth with 21 points.
