Swimmers head for Cairo

HARARE - The Lawson brothers, Matthew (14) and James (12), both broke

long-standing Zimbabwe swimming records at the fifth Mashonaland seeded gala at Harare’s Les Brown Pool.

The slim James, with his slick and fast style, clocked 1min 21.36sec in the Boys 12-and-under 100 metres breaststroke to shave the record of S. Brant (1:21.77) set 12 years ago. The St John’s swimmer then won all five his races the next day at his school inter-house gala to collect the Victor Ludorum in his final junior school gala.

The blond Matthew, an imposing 6ft 1in at age 14, stormed to 2min 23.86sec in the Boys 14-and-under 200 metres butterfly to crack M. Spence’s 2:24.37 set at the All Africa championships in Chitungwiza, Harare, in 1998.

The brothers now hold six of the 13 national records in the 12-years group and Matthew has four to himself in the 14-year group. He has more in his sights at the Junior All Africa Championships in Cairo, Egypt, shortly.

Tara Wallace (Spartans) also tuned up well for Cairo by recording her personal best 32.57sec in the girls 13-14 50 metres butterfly – also inside the Prestige Level 3 qualifying time for South Africa’s premier age group gala next March. She still needs one more time to clinch selection for that blue-chip gala, and Cairo at sea-level should see to that soon.

Shannon Taute (13) of Spartan’s beat 3min for the first time in the 13-14 girls 200 metres butterfly, but her 2min 56.77sec is still almost 20 seconds off P Sullivan’s 1996 national record. She still has a year in this age group and so, with dedication and focus, she will get closer.

In Bulawayo, Levi Fargnoli was again in record-breaking form in the Matabeleland seeded gala. In what is a gruelling race for a 10-year-old, Levi clocked 12min 19.25sec to clip 14 seconds off the Matland record set by Aidan Keates in 1992.

This is an event only swum in Matland and not nationally, but Levi is one of the top two swimmers in the country in his 10-and-under group and looks set to achieve well at the Sub-Saharan Africa Championships in Lilongwe, Malawi, in early January.

Emerging young sprint star Tarryn Rennie won the senior girls Victrix

at Hellenic Junior inter-school gala by winning all five her under-13 races in new school record times.

These were: 4 x 25m individual medley (1:17.29); 25m butterfly (15.51sec); 50m backstroke (37.37); 25m breaststroke (41.15); 25m freestyle (30.28).

Bree Caterall won the junior Victrix and broke a Rennie record, so here is another to watch carefully for the future.

Senior Victor Ludorum winner Dillon Rosser also broke school records in his farewell junior school gala.

Heritage Junior School inter-house champions were: Grade 3, Stephanie Bell; Christian Wright. Grade 4, Charlene Tait; Alex Makuvise. Grade 5: Harishma Patel; Drew Williams. Grade 6: Sarah Finch; Lebo Ngwenya;. Grade 7: Kudzi Munashe; Scott Bell.

St John’s Junior School champions: Grade 3, Martin Eeson. Grade 4, Nick Welch. Grade 5, Eddie Byrom. Grade 6, Damon Lee and Johan Kloppers; Grade 7, James Lawson.

St John’s Primary School won the Division One (boys division) inter-schools gala at Les Brown Pool for the 13th successive year. Chisipite Junior School won the girls division to continue their total dominance over several years, but the gap is definitely closing in on these two schools. – Agency

Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News

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