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Silverfin ‘Pentathlon’ lives up to the billing

Balanced athlete. Gators Abdou Hakim Seck barely faced any challenges as he topped all his races. PHOTO/EDDIE CHICCO
 

What you need to know:

An interesting pool rivalry is brewing between Dolphins brothers Tendo, 18, and Pendo Kaumi, 17, in the 17 and over age group.

The cutthroat competition in some swimming age groups at the Silverfin Pentathlon held on Saturday at Kampala Parents School – Naguru, left everyone watching yearning for more.

And indeed there will be more fascination at the National Club Championships in June but the uniqueness of the Silverfin event is in the ease in analyzing the speedsters in all strokes.

The swimmers competed in four strokes – turning it into a ‘tetrathlon’ – as the individual medley was scrapped off due to time. Such were the numbers! The event attracted over 460 swimmers from over 20 clubs including Rwandan side Mako Sharks.

An interesting pool rivalry is brewing between Dolphins brothers Tendo, 18, and Pendo Kaumi, 17, in the 17 and over age group.

The latter – a new entrant in the age group – had unmistakable strength as he drew first blood in the 50m butterfly with 26.54 seconds to his brothers’ 26.76.

Gators’ Ben Kaganda (29.48) stood between them in the 50m backstroke as Tendo edged it 28.40 to 29.55. In fact Ben, 20, also had his brother Joshua, 17, who amusingly swims for Sailfish, competing in the same age group.

The brothers’ band was pushed off the podium by Ian Aziku (30.31), Larry Greg Feni (30.47) and Isihaka Irankunda (31.12) and fourth place by Namanya Ampaire (31.34) to finish fifth (Pendo) and eighth respectively in the 50m breaststroke.

But Tendo recovered his bragging rights with a dominant 24.10 in the 50m free to edge the brother, who was a distant fourth with a 25.31, and top the age group with 96 points – just two more than Pendo.

For the senior girls’ Charlotte Sanford topped all races, bar the 50m freestyle that was won by Silverfin’s Karla Mugisha (28.74), to top the age group with 110 points. The two shared the podium throughout with Gators’ Husnah Kukundakwe.

The battles for supremacy started earlier though; with Ozpreys’ Gianna Acuo (39.54) beating Jaguar’s Ashton Regina Suubi (40.81) in the 9-10 year girls’ 50m butterfly.

The age group remained as Hill Preparatory’s Alba Ihunde beat them in the backstroke (41.22) and breaststroke (42.96) events to go top with 106 points. Dolphin twins Nakato Jinan (33.09) and Babirye Jenan (34.45) topped their freestyle.

Dominance

For the 9-10 boys, homeboy Kristian Bwisho was dominant topping in all races bar the 50m breaststroke where he finished behind Hill Preparatory’s Ibrahim Lule, his Silverfin teammate Jeremiah Ssempijja and Dolphins’ Baraka Kaumi.

Individual entrant Aya Adams and Tzion Tamale (Aqua Akii) were even more dominant in the 6-8 girls’ and boys’ age group respectively as they scooped all maximum 112 points from the four races.

In the 11-12, Jaguar’s Zara Mbanga and Gators’ Abdou Hakim Seck were barely challenged as they also ran off with maximum points.

Silverfin’s man in form, Isaiah Kuc, dropped time in all races as expected but was denied a clean sweep by International School of Uganda (ISU) Leopards’ Chang Zorby in the 13-14 boys’ 50m breaststroke. For the girls here, Jaguars’ Peyton Suubi barely needed to engage top gear but she was also denied a clean sweep by Gators’ Paloma Kirabo 34.37 triumph in the 50m backstroke.

Tara Kisawuzi also had maximum points in the 15-16 girls’ category but her Gators male teammates Ethani Ssengooba and Daniel Rukundo brought their friendly fire to this age group.

Ssengooba topped the freestyle (25.42) and butterfly (28.66) while Rukundo topped the backstroke (30.33) and breaststroke (32.26). However, while Ssengooba finished fourth in his weak breaststroke, Rukundo was a distant eighth in the butterfly, thereby allowing the former to edge the age group with 114 points – eight more than the latter.