Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Collin Matiza
7 November 2009
Harare — FEARS that local swimming will die a natural death once the legendary Kirsty Coventry hangs up her swimsuit and goggles were put to rest by a group of young swimmers who recently represented the country at the 8th All-Africa Junior Championships in Mauritius.
Seven promising swimmers -- Kaleigh and Syanne Graham, Tarryn Rennie, Samantha Welch, Nicholas Burnett, James Lawson and Sloane Marshall -- were the country's flagbearers at the four-day championships, which were held from October 22 to 25 in Port Louis.
And the four girls and three boys showed that the future of the sport of swimming in Zimbabwe was bright as they raised the country's flag with distinction to emerge from the tough event with a 16-medal haul, which was decorated by two gold medals.
In fact, the team's manager and coach, Caroline Pullen, who has been in the swimming world for the past 20 years, kept her promise to bring back medals for Zimbabwe and the team brought back 16 medals -- two gold, four silver and 10 bronze -- and came third overall behind South Africa and Egypt.
Three of the 10 bronze medals came from the girls relay team made up of Syanne and Kaleigh Graham, Rennie and Welch.
The championships were held in the town of Beau Bassin, some 10km outside the Mauritian capital city Port Louis, and there were a total of 15 countries and 148 swimmers.
Angola had eight swimmers, Botswana five, Egypt 10, Kenya eight, Madagascar 17, Morocco four, Mozambique 11, hosts Mauritius 28, Namibia six, South Africa 28, Seychelles six, Swaziland and Tanzania one each, Zambia six and Zimbabwe seven.
And the seven-member Zimbabwean team of the Kaleigh sisters, Rennie, Welch, Burnett, Marshall and Lawson made their presence in the pool from day one of these championships.
The star of the show for the Zimbabwean team was 14-year-old Lawson who won the two gold medals for the country and setting a new African Junior record in the process.
Lawson first mined the gold medal in the boys 12-14 years 200m individual medley in 2 minutes 20.97 seconds, taking off nine seconds off his personal best time.
He went on to pick up another gold medal, this time in 100m breaststroke in 1:09.20, setting a new African Junior record.
Lawson also collected a silver medal in the 50m breaststroke in 31.83sec, improving his personal best by over 30 seconds.
The promising young swimmer also set new records for Zimbabwe in the 100m breaststroke for the 14, 15 and 16-year-olds.
He also set a new national record in the 50m breaststroke for the 14 and 15-year-olds.
Apart from Lawson, young Kaleigh Graham also put up some impressive performances at the Mauritian championships.
The 13-year-old swimmer, who is now based in South Africa, won two individual bronze medals and three with the relay team, making it five bronze in total.
In fact, Kaleigh won Zimbabwe its first medal -- a bronze -- at the championships in the girls 12-14 years 100m butterfly in which she touched the wall in third place in 1:08.20, improving her PB by over two seconds.
She then won another bronze in the 200m freestyle also improving her PB by two seconds.
Kaleigh also set a new national record for the girls 13-year-olds.
Her elder sister Syanne also did well at the same championships in Mauritius where she represented the country in the girls 15-16 years section.
Syanne left the scene in Mauritius with one silver, two individual bronze medals and another three bronze medals with the relay team, making it six in total for her.
She won the silver medal in the 50m breaststroke event in 36.55sec before collecting her first bronze in the 200m breaststroke in 2:52.30, improving her PB by over three seconds.
Syanne also picked up another bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke in 1:19.86, improving her PB by two seconds.
She then went on to collect a further three bronze medals in the relays but breaststroke is obviously her strongest and best stroke.
Syanne's teammate Rennie also won two individual bronze medals and three of the same colour with the relay team.
Rennie won her first medal in the girls 12-14 years 50m freestyle in 28.37sec and then picked up her second bronze when coming third in the 50m butterfly in 31.19sec, improving her PB time.
The relays also brought another three bronze medals for Rennie.
Another promising young Zimbabwean female swimmer Welch also made her presence felt in the pool during the same championships in Mauritius where she emerged with two silver medals, one bronze in the individual events and three in the relays.
Welch first collected a silver medal in girls 12-14 years 50m breaststroke in 34.63sec, improving her PB by three seconds.
She also won another silver medal in the 100m breaststroke event in 1:15.44, improving her PB by one second.
Welch also improved by six seconds to get a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley.
All in all, Welch brought home six medals and set new national junior records for the girls 100m breaststroke for the 14,15,16 and 17-year-olds.
Two other members of the Zimbabwean team -- Burnett and Marshall -- also produced some good results in Mauritius.
Burnett, a Form Two pupil at St. John's College in Harare, swam like a star and with determination in four events and made it into three finals.
He came in a close fourth in two of the finals, which were very exciting to watch.
Burnett also improved on all of his PBs.
Marshall, on the other hand, got into five finals out of his six swims, ranking him in the Top Eight of the events he took part.
He, however, found the swimmers from South Africa and Egypt too hot to handle in all of his events.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean team's manager at the championships, Pullen, was full of praise for her charges who she said did the nation proud in Mauritius.
She, however, said the new national records set by Lawson, Kaleigh Graham and Welch are yet to be ratified by the Zimbabwe Swimming Board.
"Our swimmers did us proud and were great ambassadors for our country.
"We are sure a few of these young talented swimmers will follow the footsteps of Kirsty Coventry and hold high our swimming place in other major international events in the future.
"Our sincere and grateful thanks goes to our generous sponsors, Moore Stevens Accountants from Cape Town in South Africa, who sponsored our kit which included kitbags, four shorts, four shirts, two towels, peak caps, a costume, three swimming caps for each child and had them printed too.
"The Zimbabwe team looked smart, neat and ready to swim... We thank our sponsors Moore Stevens from the bottom of our heart," said Pullen, who is based in Bulawayo.
But what is exciting is that a new crop of young swimmers is emerging from the shadows of local swimming icon Kirsty Coventry.
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