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Ellina Mhlanga

Sports Reporter

WITH a number of swimming competitions lined up, coaches are now seeing a ray of light despite a slow start this season.

Harare were the first to stage a competition in September and the numbers have been gradually increasing with swimmers slowly coming back.

Although the season is still in its infancy, they have already begun the groundwork for the upcoming big events.

These include the Mashonaland Senior Championships expected towards the end of this month.

There are also some tours, with most swimmers hoping to meet the times for the South Africa Championships next year.

One of the coaches at Sharks club, Trevor Price, said they were focusing on training for competitions.

“Obviously, these smaller friendly galas are not as serious as would be the likes of the Mash Champs and your National galas,’’ he said.

“The kids have been doing really well with, obviously, the training that they have been doing.

“But, we are focusing more on the training for the future galas, towards the beginning of next year and tours, hopefully, in March, April.

“We have set times that they need to qualify for tours and we go by the tour times that South Africa gives us.

“And, obviously with everybody struggling for training, South Africa have made their times a little bit easier, so that will help the kids a little bit.”

Most of their swimmers skipped the weekend’s short course competition at Hellenic Academy.

They needed a break and to get ready for other upcoming events with the main target being the provincial competition.

They will be aiming to make the times for the South African Championships as well.

Spartans coach, Lindsy Tudor-Cole, said they were looking at some of their swimmers making national teams for tours.

The likes of Alexis Johnsen, Charlotte Martell and Tinotenda Chisungo are some of their leading swimmers.

“Obviously, we want them to be happy most of the time and we want them to have fun and, obviously, perform,’’ said Tudor-Cole.

“So, if we can continue the training, as we are doing now, and having our time and what we need, I am really hoping that we will have people representing Zimbabwe and representing the province.’’

Dorados coach, Masi Takaedza, encouraged the swimmers to keep working hard and is pleased with their progress.

“We are getting there, I mean, they are improving. We have had one or two with 100 percent PBs (personal bests), so they have improved in every event.

“And we still need to work on a few things before (the Mashonaland) championships, so we are slowly getting there.

“They have to keep training and keep working hard, that’s the secret. If they keep working and keep training then they will definitely get even better,” Takaedza said.