PERSONAL BESTS FOR SWIMMERS

MBABANE – National team swimmers Simanga Dlamini and Raya Young achieved their personal bests (PBs), in their heats on Tuesday morning.

This was during the opening of the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships held in the sunny coast of Melbourne in Australia. Although the pair did not make podium finishes, they both hit their PBs in their heats. Dlamini got a PB of 28.70 in the 50 metres butterfly, beating his previous time of 28.98 seconds. Young who swam the 100 metres backstroke, set a PB of 1:18:68 minutes from a previous record of 1:20.11 minutes. The swimmers were not off to a good start in the absence of Head Coach Welcome Nhlabatsi, who missed their heats after falling to produce a COVID-19 clearance certificate.

waiting

“Raya and Simanga swam today (Tuesdays) but I couldn’t attend. I’m sick. I did a COVID-19 test and was waiting for the results. I was not allowed at the pool without negative results. I got my results late in the afternoon and I’m negative but still feeling very sick,” said Nhlabatsi. The three-member team also includes Cameron Jele, who travelled alongside the Eswatini Swimming Association (ESA) President Herman Jele, who is scheduled to attend meetings during the course of the championships. Jele commended the swimmers for achieving new PBs.
“Simanga and Raya put forward a commendable effort in their events, which was in line with our set goal at the World Champs - to achieve improved season times or to set personal best times in their respective events. Simanga improved his season time in the 50-metre butterfly and Raya set a personal best time in the 100-metre backstroke,” Jele said.

According to the swimmers’ schedule, Raya will return to the pool this morning to compete in the 50-metre backstroke, while Cameron starts competing tomorrow in the 50-metre freestyle. On Saturday, Cameron will compete in the 50-metre backstroke alongside Simanga, who will dive into the pool for the 100-metre butterfly. The championships will be staged over six days, with heats in the morning sessions and the semi-finals and finals in the evening. The total prize money for the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships Melbourne 2022 is about E37 million for the best ranked swimmers in individual events and for the best ranked relay teams. A total of 1 000 athletes from over 180 countries are competing in the 48 medals events since Tuesday.  The prize money will be equally distributed to men and women for both individual athletes and relay teams from the first place to eighth place.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: