Uganda solidified its position as the home of swimming in East Africa after it won the 10th edition of the Africa Aquatics Zone three championship at the Kasarani Stadium in the heart of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi over the weekend.
This was the third time in a row that Uganda was winning the trophy, with all the victories coming away from home soil. Peyton Suubi, Tara Kisawuzi, Jonathan Kaweesa, and Nisha Pearl Najjuma led Uganda’s medal haul, with all the four swimmers topping their age groups.
From day one of the competition, the writing of Uganda being the firm favourite to win the championship was visibly on the wall. Uganda hit the ground running in the first race of the championship – the 200 meter backstroke – when five of its swimmers walked away with gold medals out of the possible eight.
Nisha Pearl Najjuma, Giovanni Cruz Mbanga, Jonathan Kaweesa, Shaun Murungi, and Tara Kisawuzi all picked up gold medals. From that point on, it became a long and gruelling chase from the other eight countries.
Crissa Dillip, arguably the star performer of the championship, carried Tanzania on her back with 12 gold medals, but they were not enough as the country finished third.
Kenya looked to 12-year-old Don Ndirangu, who collected the most number of points for them, and the duo of Victor Okech and Neo Olengo in the boys 15-16 age group, for a possible comeback, but the host country had fallen far behind to catch up with Uganda, and ended up settling for the second position.
For Uganda, this particular victory felt sweeter, largely because the competition was held in a 50-meter Olympic size swimming pool – a facility that Uganda does not have. This was the first time that many of Uganda’s swimmers were seeing, let alone competing in, such a pool.
Swimming in such a pool is different from the 25-meter pools that Ugandans are accustomed to. A 50 meter-pool calls for a different race strategy where endurance, the rhythm of the stroke rate, and many other things are needed.
That Uganda won both the boys’ and girls’ categories with very little experience in long course events speaks volumes to the amount of talent the country has. Thus, this victory leads to a more pertinent question: what if Uganda’s government offered enough support to put up facilities, how far would the country’s swimmers go? Perhaps to global podiums?
Uganda will host the next edition of the zone three championship in October 2026, five years after it held the last one. For now, the swimmers are back to the drawing board as many hope that they collected enough world aquatic points from the Kenyan event to warrant a call-up for future international competitions.
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