THE Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) has described the year 2012 as successful because it managed to send at least two swimmers at the Olympic Games in London.

TSA Technical Director Marcelino Ngalioma said other success includes hosting FINA clinics/courses in which over 72 coaches have benefited from this programme. TSA organised a ten-day level one clinic in June whereby Gerd Nottelmann from German was the instructor.

In December, they had a level 3 FINA Coaches Certification programme in which coaches from different African nations came to Dar es Salaam for the course which was led by Martyn Wilby (American) Sharing challenges and plans for next year Ngalioma said in terms of swimming competition, TSA had two national events last year, one in May and another one in September, which for the first time in history was hosted by Zanzibar Swimming Association in Zanzibar.

He said some of the major activities planned for this year will be the national competition in March 17-18th which will be held in Dar es Salaam. In April 25-29 TSA will send 16 swimmers to the African zonal competition in Lusaka, Zambia (CANA Zone 3 & 4).

In the last week of August they will have another National event to ensure that the local swimmers get as much competition as possible in getting ready for international events. In July they will send swimmers to the World championships in Barcelona (ESP), where they expect them to qualify for the Junior Olympics set for July 2014 in China.

"We are asking all swimmers to train hard so that we can achieve better success this year. Technically we advise swimmers to train at least six hours every day as opposed to two hours most of them train for now," he noted. For coaches he said, the TSA has requested FINA to provide clinics for local coaches.

"We will have one clinic in February and another one late during the year. Coaches should make use of the knowledge they get to improve training strategies and coaching plans for the better of swimming as a sport in Tanzania," he said.