Harare — KALEIGH and Syanne Graham won two bronze medals for Zimbabwe on the first day of the on-going 8th Junior African Swimming Championships in Mauritius on Thursday night.

On a day in which most of their team mates struggled in the pool, the Graham sisters grabbed the bronze medals when coming third in the finals of the girls 100m butterfly and 200m breast stroke events.

First to collect a bronze medal on Thursday night was Kaleigh who came third in the 12-14 age-group's 100m butterfly in 1 minute 08.20 seconds.

According to reports from Port Louis, Vanessa Mohr of South Africa won the event in 1:02.48 to take a gold medal while Farida Hesham of Egypt took the silver medal in 1:03.16.

Another Zimbabwean swimmer Tarryn Rennie settled for fourth place in the same race in 1:09.10.

Syanne emulated her sister Kaleigh when she clinched a bronze medal in the girls' 15-16 age-group's 200m breast stroke final in which she came third in 2:52.30.

The first two places went to South Africa's Tarryn Mackenzie (2:42.61) and Mu'minah Connelly (2:51.08).

On a hot day, the first Zimbabwean to get into the pool on Thursday was Syanne Graham who took part in the first event of the championships -- the girls 15-16 years 200m freestyle.

And the Syanne found the going tough in this race in which she came home seventh and second from last in 2:17.42.

South Africa's Kayla Ferreira (2.04.72), Tarek Osman of Egypt (2:04.93) and her teammate Amina Mostafa (2:11.09) took the first three places.

James Lawson was the next Zimbabwean swimmer to take the plunge on Thursday, swimming in the boys 12-14 years 50m butterfly event in which he also fared badly, coming seventh in the final in 29.82 seconds.

Zaahir Gamiet of South Africa won the event when he touched the wall in 27.01sec ahead of Egyptian Mahmoud Abu Eita (27.55) and South Africa's Akeem Langford (28.13).

Lawson's teammate Sloane Marshall failed to make it into the final of the boys 12-14 years 50m butterfly event after clocking 30.57sec in the morning's preliminaries.

Another Zimbabwean male swimmer Nicholas Burnett made it into the final of the boys 12-14 years 200m freestyle event where he came fourth in 2:09.16.

South Africa's Gamiet (2:01.66), Omar Kamel of Egypt (2:03.20) and another South African Hardus Louw (2.03.78) took gold, silver and bronze in this race where Zimbabwe's Marshall was placed seventh in 2:14.64.

Rennie and Kaleigh Graham competed in the ninth event of the day on Thursday night -- the girls 12-14 years 100m freestyle -- where they came fourth and fifth in 1:03.38 and 1:04.16.

The first two places went to South Africans Tamlin Crafford (59.04sec) and Mohr (59.87sec) while the bronze medal went to Hesham of Egypt who clocked 1:01.07.

Zimbabwe's Lawson and Marshall also swam in the boys 12-14 years 100m backstroke final where they were placed sixth and seventh in 1:12.37 and 1:12.60.

Gamiet of South Africa took the gold medal in this race in which he swept to victory in 1:03.53, relegating his teammate Hardus (1:04.46) and Egypt's Abu Eita (1:07.61) into second and third places.

Another promising young Zimbabwean female swimmer Samantha Welch was also in action on Thursday night in which she swum in the girls 12-14 years 100m backstroke final where she came fourth in 1:15.03.

The event was won by Mohr of South Africa in 1:07.32 ahead of her teammate Crafford (1:09.67) and Egypt's Hesham (1:11.69).

Rennie failed to make it into the final of this event after she tumbled out in the preliminaries where she clocked 1:17.99.

Meanwhile, the national anthem of South Africa was the only one heard on Thursday as this team managed to win all 14 gold medals on Day One of the 8th Junior Africa Swimming Championship being held at the Serge Alfred Swimming Stadium in Beau Bassin, 8km from the Mauritian capital Port Louis.

In the face of a very tough South African team, hosts Mauritius managed to win two bronze medals when Mauritian Estelle Li came third in the girls 100m butterfly and Mauritian boys also came third in the 4X200m free relay.

Speaking to journalists, the president of the African Swimming Confederation (ASF) and Honorary President of the International Swimming Federation (ISF), Mustapha Larfaoui, deplored that more African countries have not been able to make it to Mauritius.

He added that he can understand the situation as plane tickets cost a lot these days.

Larfaoui also thanked the Mauritian government for hosting the games a second time in four years.

Larfaoui invited everybody to attend the World Swimming Championship in small pool next year in Cuba and to come to the Chinese city of Shanghai in 2011 for the all categories swimming championship.

The Junior African Swimming Championships, which began on Thursday, will end tomorrow evening.

Results of Day One

Girls (15-16 years):

200m free: Gold Kayla Ferreira (South Africa), Silver Tarek Osman(Egypt), Bronze Magdy Mostafa (Egypt).

100m backstroke: Gold Natasha De Vos (South Africa), Silver Oneida Cooper (South Africa), Bronze Injy El Shazly (Egypt).

100m butterfly: Gold Kayla Ferreira (South Africa), Silver Oneida Cooper (South Africa), Bronze Estelle Li (Mauritius).

200m breast stroke: Gold Taryn Mackenzie (South Africa), Silver Muminah Connelly (South Africa), Bronze Syanne Graham (Zimbabwe).

Girls (12-14 years)

100m butterfly: Gold Vanessa Mohr (South Africa), Silver Farida Hesham (Egypt), Bronze Kaleigh Graham (Zimbabwe).

100m free: Gold Tamlim Crafford (South Africa), Silver Vanessa Mohr (South Africa), Bronze Farida Hesham (Egypt).

100m backstroke: Gold Vanessa Mohr (South Africa), Silver Tamlim Crafford (South Africa), Bronze Farida Hesham (Egypt).

Boys (15-16 years)

50m butterfly: Gold Murray Mc Dougal (South Africa), Silver Heinrich Alberts (South Africa), Bronze Sameh Ali Ahmed (Egypt).

200m backstroke: Gold Neil de Villiers (South Africa), Silver Mahmoud Arafa (Egypt), Bronze Dean Wesso (South Africa).

100m free: Gold Brett Walsh (South Africa), Silver Heinrich