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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
NATIONAL swimming record holder Denilson Cyprianos has ended his off-season break and returned to the pool to kick start his 2020/21 season preparations.

The 17-year-old swimming sensation captained the Zimbabwe boys’ team at the CANA Zone IV Swimming Championships held in February in Botswana where they amassed 85 medals consisting of 34 gold, 31 silver and 20 bronze.

He is eyeing the possibility of competing in South Africa in July should the neighbouring country re-open sporting events.

His father and trainer, Eddy, said they are using the lockdown to get Denilson into shape.

“Denilson is indoors and safe with us. He has started training, taking it lightly. That’s the benefit of having a swimming pool at home. We have a 25m short course and he can train any time he wants to since it’s a heated pool, meaning he can train through out the year.

“The reason he has resumed training is because there’s a possibility of having the South African senior national championships that were supposed to be held in early April before being cancelled due to Covid-19. He has to be at his best,” he said.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the African Championships that had been scheduled for April 20 where Denilson was supposed to compete in were indefinitely postponed.

The Stingrays Swimming Club swimmer, who is slowly cementing his moniker as the “king of backstroke”, holds the national 100m backstroke record which he set in Dubai when he clinched gold in a time of 59.01 seconds.

He also clinched gold in the 200m backstroke in two minutes 09.29 seconds at the same swimming gala.

Last year, Denilson shattered the open age 200m backstroke record in the South African National Junior Age Groups in a time of two minutes 08.64 seconds.

The record of two minutes 10.40 seconds was previously held by Brendan Ashby and had stood for 17 years.

Denilson became one of the junior swimmers to engrave their names into Zimbabwe’s open records. — @ZililoR.