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ESWATINI CELEBRATES REGION V ACHIEVEMENT

07/12/2022 09:05:00 Mengameli Mabuza

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MBABANE – Five gold medals deserves a big celebration and that is what Team Eswatini got last evening in Lilongwe, Malawi.

The Eswatini Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (EOCGA) hosted a gala dinner for the team to appreciate their achievement in the games so far. Team Eswatini has scooped five gold medals through the five Taekwondo stars of the 11-member team of athletes from various disciplines.

Taekwondo was first to compete and they made no mistake but all won gold last week in the ongoing Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region V Under-20 Youth Games in Malawi. While swimming failed to do well in their heats, whereby Hayley Hoy and Damien De Sousa, who were due to hit the swimming pool again last evening did so but did not win. EOCGA Board Member Victor ‘Mavikane’ Dlamini said a gala dinner was on the cards for the team last evening.

“(EOCGA) has decided to celebrate our athletes through a gala dinner just to motivate and show them that we appreciate their efforts in the different sporting codes,” he said. The gold medals-winning members of the team are Gcinumuzi Nxumalo, Sihlelelwe Matsebula, Sivunwesihle Dlamini, Aphiwe Dlamini and Hlelo Vilakati, who were able to defeat all their opponents from different countries across the African Continent.

Meanwhile, Mavikane confirmed the swimmers’ results for Monday and said despite losing, they were still proud with the overall performance so far.
“Hayley Hoy swam her personal best time in the 50m butterfly, 29.79 seconds which gave her an overall position of 8th place. Her second event was the 200m butterfly and she swam the time of 2minutes 44 seconds with 62 splits and overall result was 5th place. For the boys, Damien De Sousa’s 100m freestyle race at a time of 59.77 seconds and came 31st. Second event was the 50m breaststroke and he swam personal best time of 32.79 and overall came 15th place” he said.

The dinner was set to be graced by EOCGA President Adam ‘Bomber’ Mthethwa, Eswatini Sport and Recreation Council (ESRC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Darius Dlomo, EOCGA CEO Maxwell Jele and ESRC Chairman Celucolo ‘Dino’ Dlamini, who will leave Malawi for home this morning. The games started on December 2 and will run until December 11.