HOSTS, Zimbabwe finished second in the African Swimming Confederation (Cana) championships, which ended in Bulawayo yesterday.
BY FORTUNE MBELE
Zimbabwe improved their performance from last year, winning 23 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze medals, having finished third last year with just nine gold.
This year, South Africa finished top with a harvest of 43 gold, 26 silver and 10 bronze medals, while Zambia was third, with 18 gold, 11 silver and 20 bronze.
Zimbabwe, with a total haulage of 98 medals, came out tops in combined team scores, with 2 958,50 points, followed by Zambia on 2 295,50 points while South Africa came third with 1 939 points.
Australia-based Robyn Lee hogged the limelight in the competition, breaking five records and clinching seven gold medals for Zimbabwe.
Lee (18) was excited about her performance in the tournament.
“It was really good and I enjoyed the competition around me and the team support that I got behind me. I really enjoy having my name up there for the young swimmers to look up to and try to compete against me. It’s like they are looking up to me like I was looking up to Kirsty Coventry, when I was young. I am hoping that I will be another Kirsty, but I am my own name and I am hoping to do my best. My aspirations are high. I would encourage the youngsters to train hard and not skive and keep looking up to their idols,” she said.
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Yesterday, Lee broke last year’s 200m individual medley record, finishing in 2:28:63 and also won the women’s 17 and over 200m butterfly in 2:28:92, although she failed to beat last year’s record of 2:24:51.
On Saturday, Lee won the 100m butterfly in 1:04:43, beating last year’s record of 1:05:67 and also picked up gold in the 100m backstroke clocking 1:06:07, beating last year record by three milliseconds.
She also won the 50m butterfly in 28.65 seconds.
Also in good form in the competition was 15-year-old Liam O’Hara from Falcon College, who picked up four gold, one silver and bronze in the tournament in the boys’ category.
Zimbabwe Aquatic Union president, Marry Kloppers was impressed with the way the tournament progressed.
“It was brilliant. Brilliant from the perspective of the organising committee, the tournament was flawless. The performance of Team Zimbabwe was beyond expectations and we are extremely happy,” Kloppers said.
Sports minister Makhosini Hlongwane witnessed the last day of the competition.
“These results are very good for Team Zimbabwe.They have performed their best ever since Zimbabwe became a member of Cana. We need to tweak the qualitative aspect of how we are performing so that we migrate those that are doing well in the silver to the gold and those that are in the bronze to the silver and gold. I am very happy with this performance by swimming,” he said.
