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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THREE Bulawayo swimmers have qualified for the South African Junior National Championships after clocking qualifying times at the Bulawayo Amateur Swimming Association (Basa) Championships held last weekend.

Tichatonga Makaya, Jason Deswart and Khaya Vimba are headed for the prestigious tournament scheduled for April next year.

Makaya won the 100m butterfly in a time of 59.94 seconds, while Deswart won the 400m individual medley in 5 minutes 19.77 seconds and Vimba clinched the 100m breaststroke in 1 minute 12.93 seconds.

Stingrays Swimming Club retained the Basa championships after amassing a combined 2 107 points followed by Penguins with 1 212 points and Crusaders with 802 points.

Stingrays Club representative Phephe Nnam  said several swimmers’ broke records at the meet, but they are yet to be ratified by the national union.

“Swimming improved a lot with many young swimmers showing a lot of promise. Stingrays retained the overall Basa Championships. Stingrays dedicated their victory to their departed coach Edmore Cyprianos, who is responsible for laying the foundation. We celebrate the victory and take it as a challenge that we need to work extra hard and maintain the standard set by our coach,” said Nnam.

“We are excited that a lot of our children did well. Already two of our senior swimmers Jasper Mpofu and Dylan Lee are in Lesotho with the Zimbabwe team for the (African Union Sports Council) Region 5 Games. We are looking forward to competing at the senior nationals in February 2022 in Harare.”

The AUSC Region 5 Youth Games are staged every two years and hosted by member countries on a rotational basis in alphabetic order. — @innocentskizoe