Zambia: Country Dominates Swimming Gala

16 March 2011

Zambian swimmers at the weekend dominated the Invitational swimming gala held at the Baobab International School, wrapping 77 gold, 91 silver and 45 bronze medals as the host nation emerged tops with 2006 points.

The terrific performance by the Zambian swimmers saw the country placed on top of the final overall points standing followed by arch-rivals Malawi who could only amass 1,468 points on the chat.

The two-day event saw Tanzania finishing 467 points behind Malawi and could only manage a consolation of topping a disadvantage one-man squad from Botswana that obtained 32 points.

In the individual category, Zambian Emma Jager’s classical performance saw her breaking four records. She beat her old 200 metres free-style record of 2:33.03 to clock a time of 2:32.90 and managed to re-write her old 100 metres individual medley of 1:22.19 in a time of 1:21.76.

Jager exceeded her old 100-metre timing of 1:10.72 to finish on 1:10.35 and she bettered her 100 metres free-style swimming of 1:23.16 to set a record of 1:20.48. Mia Phiri broke the 200 metres free-style record held by Crystal Findlay of 3:41.68 in a time of 3:30.21 while Sinead Doyle improved her 200 metres breast-stroke record of 4:15.05 to 4:05.12 and again managed to outshine 100 metres record holder Jasmine Chungu, who should now beat Doyle’s record of 1:54.07 to improve his current record of 1:57.87.

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