JUNIOR swimmers return to the pool this morning when they take part in the Mashonaland Junior Swimming Championships finals with six clubs expected to take part at Les Brown. The championships will end tomorrow and will be the final event for the junior swimmers.

The six teams that are expected to compete in the championships are Highlands, Spartans, Pirates, Sharks, Otters and Dorados.

Zimbabwe Aquatics Union president, Mary Kloppers, said they are looking forward to a stiff competition as they will be using the event to select the national team to tour South Africa next month.

"We are expecting probably about 100 participants from the ages of eight to 11 years. It's the final junior competition.

"We are expecting the competition to be high because we are selecting a national team.

"We have got the senior championships on February 14 and we will tour in South Africa in March.

"We will be sending over 100 swimmers from the age of 10 to 18," said Kloppers.

Kloppers said participants in today's competition will compete in all events.

Harare Otters are the defending champions having won the 2012 championships and will be out to defend their title.

However, it's not going to be an easy task as they are likely to face tough competition from clubs such as Sharks and Spartans who finished second and third respectively in last year's finals.