Elite swimmers miss second Bulawayo gala

Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter 

BULAWAYO Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) is set to host its second swimming gala at Bulawayo Municipality Swimming Pool this evening as they prepare for regional competitions. 

The event, like the first one, will be held under floodlights at the city’s ceremonial home of swimming starting at 6pm and will have swimmers from five different teams. The teams are Penguins Club, School of Swimming, Stingrays Swimming Academy, The Falcons Swimming Club and Affiliated Crusaders Swimmers.

The galas are used as preparation for African Swimming Confederation (Cana) Zone IV junior level championships which will be held virtually on the weekend of 28-30 October. Elite swimmers will however, not attend the event as they will be in Harare for the national schools’ gala. 

“Unfortunately elite swimmers won’t be around this time, they went for the national schools’ gala at Hellenic Academy,” said BASA chairperson Phawulani Ngwenya. 

 Today’s gala will not be the only event on the cards in Bulawayo as there will also be a junior league gala at the same venue on Saturday. The gala is for Under-12 swimmers both boys and girls. This will be the first of the four junior league galas that will be used to select a provincial team. The top four in each strokes will join the provincial team. 

“The times scored are the times that will be used to select a provincial team,” said Ngwenya. 

Some of the swimmers who are expected to shine in the junior league are Mbali Sibanda, Senamile Mphoko, and Adriana Bhana. In the boys’ side there is Fayayo Sibanda and Kwandokuhle Nkomazana. 

Ngwenya advised the swimmers to work hard to improve their national standings so that they qualify for the regional team. 

“It is important to be in the top five in the region in order to be selected to represent the region,” he said. 

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