The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
SWIMMERS at the recently ended 2018 National Senior Swimming Championships struggled to set new records in the long course pool but dreary weather conditions saw them resorting to the short course pool where four records were set.
The competition ran from 16 to 20 February but was heavily affected by rainy conditions that persisted throughout the tournament with Sunday 18 February being the worst day as a heavy storm forced the cancellation of afternoon activities.
The resultant flash floods saw muddy water flowing into the main pool and the pump rooms were also flooding.
This forced the organisers to turn to the short course pool the following morning where four records were made.
Lorna Riley said it was a difficult weekend for the swimmers with rather imperfect weather conditions and resulted in swimming in both the 50m pool and the 25m pool resulting in records for both pools being in play.
“Sadly the Long course records remain intact at this particular meet, but we did have four Short course records. The records have been ratified,” she said.
In the female 15 & Under 50m freestyle plate winner, Paige van der Westhuizen clocked 27,45 seconds to replace United States-based Robyn Lee’s record of 27,64 seconds that was set in 2013.
Mashonaland’s Callum Morgan is the new 100m backstroke record holder in the males 14 & under section after touching the pad in 1 minute 08,58 seconds shattering a 28 year old record of 1 minute 09,20 seconds that was set by an I LeRoux on 10 January in 1990.
In the 17 and under male section, Liam O Hara broke his own two records he made last year as he set new times in the 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley.
In the 200m backstroke, he clocked 2 minutes 16.09 seconds eclipsing the 2 minutes 17,62 seconds that he set in November last year while in the 400 IM he shaved over 10 seconds from last year’s 4 minutes 51,57 seconds to clock 4 minutes 41,30 seconds at this year’s championships.
Mashonaland retained the aggregate trophy of the 2017 National Swimming Championships held at the City Pool.
Mashonaland dominated both the boys’ and girls’ swimming events to amass 2 957 points, while hosts Matabeleland were second with 2 074 points.
Mashonaland Country Districts were a distant third with 190 points.
The four-day swimming gala had Mashonaland, Matabeleland, Mashonaland Country Districts, Midlands and Manicaland taking part.
