The club's head coach, Kanisi Mabena, said the championships marked a major milestone in the club's youth development program
Dar es Salaam. The 10th Tanzania National Junior Swimming Championships highlighted the growing competitiveness of swimming in East Africa, with Kenya's Bandari Swim Club and Tanzania's North Coast Swimming Club emerging as the leading performers, while Dar es Salaam Swimming Club celebrated significant progress among its junior swimmers.The championships attracted 410 swimmers from 22 clubs competing in 84 disciplines, making it one of the most competitive junior swimming events in the region.
Bandari Swim Club emerged as the overall champions after collecting 38 medals, narrowly edging out North Coast Swimming Club, which finished second with an impressive haul of 27 medals.
The two clubs were evenly matched in gold medals, with each winning 17 titles. However, Bandari secured the championship through a superior overall tally, collecting eight silver and 13 bronze medals compared to North Coast's five silver and five bronze medals.
Tanzania's Mwanza Swim Club also produced an impressive performance, finishing third in the medal standings with 15 gold, seven silver and 10 bronze medals. In the points classification, North Coast, a club founded just two years ago, continued its remarkable rise by finishing joint second with Mwanza Swim Club on 119 points.
Bandari claimed the overall points title with 124 points, underlining its consistency across both genders and multiple disciplines.
A breakdown of the category standings revealed contrasting strengths among the leading teams. North Coast dominated the girls' category with 92 points, ahead of Bandari, which accumulated 79 points.
Mwanza Swim Club, meanwhile, excelled in the boys' category, topping the standings with 118 points. Bandari followed with 45 points, while North Coast finished sixth with 27 points, highlighting an area that the rapidly growing club will seek to improve.
The championships also featured participation from clubs outside East Africa, with Zambia represented by Aquatics Riders Swim Club, Kalene Swim Club, Lechwe Swimming Club, Ndola Rapids Swim Club and Orcas Swim Club, adding further depth and quality to the competition.
While the battle for honours attracted significant attention, Dar es Salaam Swimming Club took encouragement from the performances of its young and emerging swimmers.
The club's head coach, Kanisi Mabena, said the championships marked a major milestone in the club's youth development programme.
According to Mabena, the club fielded 60 swimmers, with 30 of them competing at the national championships for the first time. Despite their limited experience, the newcomers delivered encouraging performances, helping the club secure four trophies while individual swimmers won several medals in different events.
Mabena said the club's primary objective was not necessarily to challenge for the overall title but to expose young swimmers to a competitive environment and gradually integrate them into the sport's development system.
"Our target was to introduce the children to the competition system and give them valuable exposure at an early stage," said Mabena.
He noted that the club has successfully recruited children aged between four and seven years, many of whom are completely new to competitive swimming.
According to him, the performances of the young swimmers exceeded expectations and demonstrated the effectiveness of the club's long-term development strategy.
"Their performances have been very encouraging. Some of them have already achieved qualifying times, which is something we are extremely proud of. It shows that the children are learning quickly and adapting well to competitive swimming," he said.
Mabena added that swimmers who had previously participated in competitions also continued to make remarkable progress by improving their individual times.
"We have not looked at the overall results alone. We have focused on the progress of each individual swimmer. For example, a swimmer who previously completed a race in one minute can now finish it in 40 seconds.
That, for us, is a major achievement," he said. He described the improvements as a significant step forward for the club, particularly in its efforts to broaden participation and strengthen the pathway for young athletes.
"This is a huge achievement for our club. We have increased the number of swimmers participating in competitions and significantly expanded our competitive base," said Mabena.
He believes that continued investment in grassroots development will enable the club to produce swimmers capable of competing successfully at national and international levels in the years ahead.
With an increasing number of youngsters joining the programme and showing steady improvement, Dar es Salaam Swimming Club believes it is laying a solid foundation for the future of swimming in Tanzania.
