BY WILLIAM NJUGUNA
THE Nairobi Amateur Swimming Association (NASA) will send 75 swimmers to the South Africa swimming open Championships next year.
NASA chairman Reginald Okumu said 30 swimmers for Level 1 Championship and 20 for Level 2 and a further 15 for Level 3 event . He said going by this year’s event in South Africa, they need more swimmers for the Level 3 event considering they only had one in the category.
“We only had one swimmer in Level 3 as others pulled out due to examinations and other commitments. He said they plan to take a bigger squad for the Level 3 because they have the potential top do well in the category.
The NASA boss observed that he was encouraged by the performance in Level 1 having improved from position 20 the previous year to third this year.
Okumu said they will select swimmers for the South African show starting with the national championships set for November 30 to December 2; Triple A Gala and Double A Gala in the new year. “We will have two selections for both events and they will be competitive because we are looking at having 75 swimmers for the three events in South Africa,” added Okumu.
Some of the swimmers looking to impress in the upcoming championships include Martha Opiyo, Marco Pelligrini, Mathew Boyer, Samuel Ndonga, Ella Cottar, Edward Roest, Nasimiyu Khatundi, Nabil Saleh, Alex Ngini, Chantelle Mukabi, Rhea Nawab and Nigel Nindo among others.
Others are Hadasah Mumbi Gichovi of Loreto Convent Valley Road and Thorpe Imara Bell.
Okumu said plans are underway to have more public schools engaged in the sport. “Yes we have spoken to public schools to have more taking up the sport. However, it will be a bit of a challenge because public school tend to concentrate much on examinations at the expense of sports activities,” added Okumu
He said the South African Swimming Championships will be a good build-up for the Nairobi swimming ahead of the upcoming events.
“ It’s very competitive championship across all age categories and we have so many strong swimmers from the region. This will, therefore, be a good forum to gauge our swimmers,” added Okumu.
Courtesy of the-star.co.ke