Zimbabwe successfully defended their team title at the annual African Swimming Confederation (CANA) Zone IV championships after dominating most of the events at the swimming event held in Lusaka, Zambia.
Living up to their pre-tournament favourites tag, Zimbabwe dominated the developmental competition from start to finish with some outstanding performances from their swimmers.
They won more than 70 medals, including 20 gold in individual and relay competitions.
The Zimbabwean swimmers amassed a combined team score of 2 735 points. Mozambique were placed second with a combined team score of 1 987.50 and hosts Zambia came third with 1 928 points.
The regional competition which ran from April 14 to 18 featured Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Angola, Tanzania, Uganda, Seychelles, Eswatini, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
There were some outstanding individual performances by Zimbabwean swimmers in the competition headlined by the country’s first black Olympic swimmer Olympian Donata Katai.
The 17-year-old rising star won gold medals in 100m backstroke, 50m backstroke and 200m backstroke, and silver in 50m butterfly and 100m butterfly races.
A stunning swim from these two powerhouses in the 50m backstroke 💪🏽🔥 #CANAZone4Zambia
1. Donata Katai 🇿🇼
2. Kirabo Namutebi 🇺🇬 pic.twitter.com/ehlACVZUW9— Bryan Kay (@Bkay200) April 16, 2022
Katai’s participation at the regional meet in Lusaka came a few days after she finished at the highly competitive South African Senior National Swimming Championship, where she reached the final of the backstroke event and finished sixth.
In addition to Katai, other top performers for the Zimbabwe team included the likes of Cory Werrett, Ryan Franceys, Khaya Vimba, Olivia Accorsi, Matida Musere and Tori Dawe.
Werrett, who was one of the Team Zimbabwe captains, claimed gold in 100m and 200m freestyle.
He also claimed silver in the 50m, 200m and 100m breaststroke events.
Zimbabwe swimming chairperson, Tracey Doorman, commended the swimmers for their team effort.
“We are obviously very proud and pleased with the whole team’s performance. Medals, notwithstanding most of the team swam personal bests, which is great and added to the points total.
“We are very happy that we led from start to finish and it takes a team to perform consistently to do that on this competition,” said Doorman.