The Ghana Swimming Team would be participating in the 1st Lagos
International Swimming Classics hosted by the Lagos State Swimming
Association from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10thNovember, 2013 at the Teslim
Balogun Stadium Swimming Pool, Surule, Lagos - Nigeria. This maiden event
is the brainchild of the Nigeria Aquatics Federation to bring together top
swimmers from the Africa Zone 2 (West and Central Africa) member
Federations to compete for honours and improve their times ahead of major
international swimming events.
A team of Nine (9) comprising five swimmers (3 boys and 2 girls), three
Officials and media personnel would be representing the country at this
Africa event. The officials are; Theophilus Wilson Edzie; President &
leader of Delegation, Jonathan Amoako Attah - Team coach, Kwami Kpodoh;
FINA Referee & Technical Director who will be officiating at the event with
Cecil Stanley Tagoe as a Media personnel from Ghana Television Sports.
The current top seed Swimmers representing Ghana includes; Kwaku Addo -
Ghana's best 50m Freestyle (25.74sec), Kwesi Abbiw Jackson - Best 100m
Freestyle (58.68secs), Abeiku Gyakye Jackson - Best 100m & 200m Butterfly
(1:09.84 & 2:55.62secs), Ophelia Swayne - Best Female in 50m Freestyle &
Butterfly (28.10sec & 29.86secs) and Benedicta Elikplim - Best Female in
100m Butterfly (1:23.50secs). Kwaku Addo will compete in the 50m
Freestyle/Butterfly, Kwesi Abbiw Jackson in 50m/100m Freestyle, Abeiku
Jackson in 100m Freestyle and 50m/100m/200m Butterfly. Opphelia Swayne
would be aiming to better her times in the 50m Freestyle and 50m butterfly
with Benedicta Elikplim going in for the 50m Free and 100m Butterfly.
Ghana is bound to face stiff competition from other competing nations like
Nigeria (host), Burkina Faso, Gambia, Senegal, Cote D'Ivoire, Togo, Benin,
Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Niger, Cameroun and Congo Brazzaville. The
young swimmers are however upbeat about their participation and hopes to
win some of the medals and cash prizes at stake and improve significantly
in their respective times.
Another uphill task after the Lagos Classics is the African Juniors
Swimming Championship to be held in Zambia from 28thNovember to 2nd
December, 2013 where the swimmers would be aiming for qualifying slots for
the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in China as well as the 2014 Commonwealth
Games in Glasgow.
The team left Accra on Wednesday.
Williams Kyei
Secretary General
Ghana Swimming Association
Email: swimming@sportscouncil.com.gh
Tel: +233 208763071
Fax: +233 302666620
Web:
http://www.sportscouncil.com.gh/maincat_select_discipline.cfm?disciplineID=1
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