Mikayla’s Cinderella story
IT is a Cinderella story, one that fairytales are normally made of.
A massive 14-gold medal haul from two galas, including the recently held Zimbabwe Swimming championships, have seen teenage sensation, Mikayla Makwabarara, literally touch the heavens.
In the month that Zimbabwe joined the rest of the World in commemorating Women’s Month, whose highlight was the International Women’s Day last Tuesday, Makwabarara is one of the young females who have had an amazing run under the blue waters and underlined some of the achievements recorded by the country’s women.
As if to put the icing on the cake, the 14-year-old defied both age and injury to emerge as the fastest woman in the 100metre freestyle in the country at the end of the championships.
Competing in the 13-14 years’ age group, Makwabarara was the toast of her team as Harare province powered to glory winning the bulk of the events that were up for grabs.
At 14, it might be early days yet and the fact that she is also a versatile sportsperson who is equally talented in hockey and athletics, has naturally given rise to fears that she might be tempted to dump swimming along the way.
But for now she has been making more waves in swimming than in hockey and athletics.
Makwabarara made it eight out of eight in the races she swam, which included all the 50m competitions on show at the Les Brown swimming pool in Harare.
In the process she earned the qualification times for the South Africa age group championships and the CANA Zone IV championships in Lusaka, Zambia both of which are scheduled for April.
The South Africa age group championships will precede the CANA Zone IV and Zimbabwe Aquatic Union chairperson Tracey Doorman, in acknowledging Makwabarara’s talents, also revealed that she had made the team for the April 6-11 competition in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth).
The CANA event, for which the team is yet to be picked, will be staged from April 14-18.
“Mikayla is a talented swimmer but she is young and its too soon to see where she will go. This is like a number of swimmers before her.
“It is always good to see that we have new swimmers coming through and as an association it’s our job to guide and nurture them so that they remain swimming and be part of our system for many years,’’ Doorman said.
But what has left her coach Malcolm Cocks and her parents purring apart from her talent is the mental strength that belies Mikayla’s age.
She has hardly shown any signs of being intimidated even when swimming against competitors above her age.
Cocks is also happy to see his protégé being the fastest woman over 100m in the free style event in the country at the moment.
The veteran coach, who has 28 swimmers at the national championships, also bemoaned the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic which had pegged back the shifts his athletes put in their training regime.
“The national championships have been good for our swimmers and I had 28 that qualified coming from our squad.
“We had some outstanding swims. The build up to the champs had been difficult because of Covid-19 especially not being able to train for more than one session a day.
“We were not allowed to train in the mornings because of Covid-19 and the amount of training time was not what I wanted or what most coaches would have wanted,’’ Cocks said. Nonetheless, he was charmed to see Makwabarara lead from the front as she maintained her 100 percent record since she began swimming.
“Eight out of eight gold medals despite a shoulder injury . . . she performed beautifully.
“Basically she is a winner. She wants to win everything and she responds well to training,’’ he said.
What really drives Mikayla for someone her age?
“I think she just wants to improve and just wants to win all the time.
“She was born a winner.
“She has never come second or third and despite a slow start to the season because of the niggling injury, she has done well. For her, swimming against South Africa’s top age group swimmers should provide a good challenge.
“It is also very important to note that she is the fastest woman in the 100m freestyle within Zimbabwe at the moment with her time of 1min.02.02s,’’ Cocks said.
The veteran mentor with nearly over three decades of coaching, however, noted that pressing school programmes have meant that some of the swimmers have to take time to focus on such disciplines like water polo, athletics, rugby and hockey.
But for Makwabarara, determination and perseverance have been her hallmarks and as she reflected on the performances that earned her a place in Team Zimbabwe, she also remained grounded.
“I feel like I really needed to do well because I got my times in this gala, and a lot of people were also trying to get their times as well so everyone was pushing and trying their best.”