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Denilson Cyprianos
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE 50m butterfly, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 50m breaststroke and 800m freestyle are lined up for this evening’s Matabeleland Amateur Swimming Board (MASB) Gala at the Bulawayo City Pool.
Swimmers will use today’s gala to prepare for the Matabeleland Senior Swimming Championships set for December 1-4 in the city.
Today’s competition will also be used for ranking purposes and organisers will be on the lookout for swimmers that post the best times to enable them to make the Matabeleland team.
At last week’s event, Penguins Swimming Club’s Denilson Cyprianos’ 100m backstroke time of one minute 07.90 seconds in the boys’ 13-14 years age-group saw him becoming the third MASB swimmer to book a place at next year’s South Africa Junior Swimming Championships.
The qualifying time for the 100m backstroke Durban meet for the 13-14 age group is one minute 08.54 seconds.
Cyprianos, who broke two national records a fortnight ago, returned to the Bulawayo City Pool last Friday to swim an immaculate one minute 07.90 seconds to book a place in the SA Junior Swimming Championships to be held in Durban in March 2017.
He joins The Falcons Swimming Club’s Liam O’Hara and Barracudas’ Cory Werret, who hit qualifying times for the SA Junior Swimming Championships in earlier races.
Nokuthula Cyprianos, chairperson of the MASB, said they expect a competitive pool with swimmers trying to secure spots for the SA Junior Swimming Championships.
“The SA Junior Swimming Championships are set for March and swimmers will want to book their places now to avoid last minute attempts, meaning it won’t be surprising to see some of our swimmers attempting to break records and qualify.
“We’re excited with the level of competition we’re witnessing of late and we urge aquatic sport lovers to come and cheer these young swimmers whom we believe will one day make the country proud at regional and international events,” said Cyprianos — @ZililoR.
