Dar es Salaam club swimmers dominate National Open Championship

Dar es Salaam. Taliss-IST emerged the overall winners in the 2019 National Open Swimming Championship.

They amassed a total of 2,207 points to beat other seven clubs in the event, which reached its climax on Sunday evening at the International School of Tanganyika (IST) swimming pool.

The club scored 1,242 and 965 points in the women’s and men’s categories to win the top honour.

Over 100 swimmers from eight clubs battled it out for medals in the two-day event, which, for the first time since its inception, took place at an ultra-modern swimming pool.

Dar es Salaam’s Bluefins finished second with 1,281 points and Mis Piranhas of Morogoro collected 830 points to finish third.

Bluefins scored 734 points in the women’s category and 547 in the men’s series in the tough but thrilling event.

Mis Piranhas, on the other hand, amassed 375 and 455 points in the women’s and men’s categories respectively.

The fourth position went to Dar es Salaam Swimming Club (DSC) after collecting 750 points.

Mwanza Swimming Club were fifth with 468 points while FK Blue Marlins finished sixth with 429 points. Uwcea Moshi Campus and Champions Rise finished seventh and eighth with 325 and 244 points respectively.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the championship, Taliss-IST Club manager Hadija Shebe said she was very happy with the way her swimmers fared at the championship.

She also thanked the club’s coaches, parents and the country’s swimming fraternity for their immense support to the team. Shebe heaped praise on the club’s swimmers, saying they have the potential to excel internationally. She urged them not to be complacent. Instead, she said, they should train even harder ahead of their next assignments.

“There should be no room for complacency,” she told the swimmers. “You must work even harder if you really want to win top honours in international competitions,” she added.