Geophrey Sifani Sports Reporter
SIX clubs will compete in the Matabeleland Swimming Board (MSB) senior swimming gala this evening at Hillside Teachers’ College. Barracudas, SOS, Crusaders, BG Dolphins, Falcons and Penguins participate in the gala that marks the beginning of the Bulawayo swimming season.
Events to be contested at the gala include the 50M butterfly, 100M breaststroke, 50M backstroke, 100M freestyle, 200M individual medley and 200M backstroke.
MSB spokesperson Joseph Gliwitzki said preparations for the gala had been completed and they were hoping to stage a successful event.
“We hope to have a good gala as the swimmers are raring to go,” said Gliwitzki
The event will be held at the college’s pool as the City Pool is undergoing some repairs.
The pool was due to have been opened to the public on August 15.
“This has inconvenienced us because that’s the only 50M pool (City Pool) in Bulawayo and we have now been forced to improvise by using the college pool that is only 25M,” said Gliwitzki.
Bulawayo City Council spokesperson Nesisa Mpofu said the municipality was doing all it could to expedite works at the City Pool.
“There are still outstanding works from the AUSC Region 5 Games that are still being attended to by the contractor, who was contracted to do the works by the Ministry of Public Works. It is hoped that the pool will be re-opened soon once snags relating to the matter of (the) circulation system have been attended to,” said Mpofu.
“Council is losing revenue and the (swimming) association is losing valuable service of the pool as a result of the delay.”
She said some problems developed soon after the pool was commissioned, leading to the delay, but the contractors were working at resolving the situation.