Swimming season starts

AN exciting swimming season, which kicks off on Friday, awaits Bulawayo as the city prepares to host the regional CANA 4 Championships in February 2017.

The regional event involves 12 Southern African countries and the meet will run from February 15 to 18 at the City Pool. Matabeleland Amateur Swimming Board chairperson, Nokuthula Cyprianos said the hosting of the CANA 4 meet is likely to see heated competition this season as swimmers aim to make the grade and represent the nation at this prestigious event.

CANA is the African motherbody for swimming and Zone 4 comprises southern African countries that include Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“Swimmers will be eager to represent Zimbabwe at next year’s CANA Zone 4 championships since they are being hosted on home soil and this is certain to make the season more competitive as swimmers outsmart each other to post the best times.

“We have been confirmed as the hosts and I think there will be more effort put as the local swimmers would want to lift medals and be crowned on home soil,” said Cyprianos.

The first gala will be held tomorrow evening at the City Pool followed by the All-comers gala on Saturday and a Pentathlon meet is scheduled for September 23. October will see the MASB host four main events, All comers on October 1, with the second Matabeleland Gala on October 7 followed by the Juniors competition the next day and the third and fourth Mat’land competitions will be held on October 21 and 28 respectively.

All events will be held at the City Pool besides the Juniors which is earmarked for Hillside Teachers College. October will also be interspersed with various in-house school events. Two galas would follow in November with the Mat’land Championships earmarked for early December. Cyprianos said they had to squeeze in the galas in a short period as the senior nationals have been brought forward to January due to the hosting of the CANAs.

“Our calendar is really hectic because of the CANAs. For Matabeleland it means we have to squeeze all the galas between now and end of November before we host the Matabeleland Championships,” she said.

Zimbabwe emerged third at the CANA Zone 4 that took place from April 20 to 23 at Beau Bassin in Mauritius after amassing 1722 points behind winners Mauritius and Zambia who had 2744 points and 1961 points respectively. — @rasmthembo