Mukalazi earns continental swimming history

Tendo Mukalazi wrote his name in history as the first Ugandan to swim in the finals of a continental senior championship.

Mukalazi’s 53.18 seconds national record made on Wednesday morning was enough to earn him a place as eighth qualifier in the finals of the 100m freestyle event at the ongoing Cana (Africa) Senior and Junior Championships in Accra, Ghana.

His teammate Fadhil Saleh was good for a 54.62 personal best (PB) in the same race.
Mukalazi returned 53.74 in the finals to finish seventh. The feat will give him some reprieve after a controversial change in rules denied him a place in the 50m backstroke finals on Monday.

Mukalazi had recorded another national record 28.41 to finish eighth in the seniors races. He and most people back home thought that was enough to place him in the finals.

Rules change
But the rules for the championship, which is also the first time the junior and senior continental galas are being held simultaneously, had long been revised.

Junior swimmers were swimming one-off straight finals but if they recorded better times than what seniors did in the corresponding preliminaries, the former would then be eligible to swim in the finals at the expense of the seniors.
The dangers here is during prelims, most seniors usually do what is just enough to earn them a place in the finals while the juniors would go all out in straight finals.

Anyway, Mukalazi, who had scratched his 200m freestyle to concentrate on 50m back, fell victim as four juniors made faster times to eliminate him. To make matters worse, he was only told of his predicament as he warmed up for the finals.

It was triple jeopardy as he had denied himself a chance to go head-to-head with Saleh, who managed his first PB 2:04.73 in the 200m free.

But the aforementioned rule change was a double-edged sword for Uganda as it earned his sister and junior swimmer Kirabo Namutebi a place in the girls’ 100m free final.

Namutebi had recorded 59.80 to finish fifth in the juniors finals but her time was 9th best when compared against the seniors. One of her junior colleagues opted out of the finals making room for her but she swum over a minute.

Her tough luck continued to Wednesday when she appeared to touch second in a bid to defend the 50m breaststroke gold she won at the junior championships in Tunisia in 2019.

She was, however, disqualified for a dolphin kick fault during the underwater phase. Meanwhile, her teammate Swagia Mubiru was good for 3:09.60 personal best in the 200m breast.

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