Swimming trio for Olympics qualifiers

The Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) secretary general Ramadhan Namkomveka named the swimmers as Sonia Tumiotto, Collins Saliboko and Aliasgher Karimjee.

Tanzania will be represented by four swimmers at the event and as Hilal Hilal is already in Dubai. He left after conclusion of national swimming championship.

TSA official said Hilal is using Dubai as his camp for the preparation of Rio Olympics.

Namkomveka said team manager is Leena Kapadia whom he said has worked tirelessly to ensure that team leaves to Dubai while Philip Saliboko who is TSA director of finance will be the leader of delegation.

“At last the team is leaving on Saturday, they will not board the same flight. We really thank Kapandia who worked hard to see that all logistics for visa, accommodation, travel reservations and entries of swimmers are furnished.

We thank her for the exemplary job. We feel proud to have her in our preparation for Rio Olympic Games’ qualification in Dubai,” he said.

He said TSA will use the services of Tanzania coach based in Dubai, one Munir.Namkoveka says the Dubai International Aquatics Championships started on March 29th and will wind up on April 7th, The event is held at the Hamdan Sport Complex in Dubai (UAE).

In this competition swimming will start on April 4th through 7th and we expect our swimmers to acclimatise with the weather within a short time.

The TSA official said his association was looking for 21m/- to send swimmers to Dubai for the event, but failed to raise the money and instead parents and guardians of swimmers have paid for their children.

He thanked the parents and guardians of the swimmers for their support to the development and growth of the sport in the country.

He said the swimmers are doing final touches at their respective clubs and pools, Aliasgher is in Morogoro training at Morogoro International School, Collins is training at Shaaban Robert pool under coach Amina Mfaume and Sonia is training with her club (Dar Swim Club).

“We still optimistic over our swimmers to do well including improving their personal best times, based on their recently performance and result in Dar es Salaam.

We wish them all the best the swimmers and request Tanzanians to pray for them to do well. Tanzania Government has already granted the permission through National Sports Council, and we thank them for joining our hands in our journey to Brazil via Dubai”, he said.