Promising start, big day ahead for Kukundakwe

Inspired by yesterday’s performance, Husnah Kukundakwe will be hoping for even better returns as she hits the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England today.
Her aim is to become Uganda’s first swimmer to qualify for the Paralympics on merit and she feels today’s 100m breaststroke event will offer that chance.

The 14 year old para-swimmer started her Series promisingly with two personal bests in the 100m freestyle (1:24.24) and 200m individual medley (3:24.24) at the near-empty Centre yesterday.

Kukundakwe had last participated in a competition over a year ago but the S9 classification group swimmer managed to cut the 100m free time she made at such a competition in London in 2019 by 59 microseconds inspired by a 39:54 split.
Her coach Muzafaru Muwanguzi was keeping close attention to her medley event and having not done it since 2018 in Nairobi, the SM9 class swimmer did not disappoint as she lowered the 4:00.03 time from Nairobi by over 25 seconds.
Today’s challenge, however, is the biggest as Kukundakwe is tipped to go under 1:37.00 in the 100m breast to qualify for the Paralympics due August in Tokyo.

Her official personal best is 1:57.44 posted at the World Series in Singapore in early 2019. 
But even before tapering for Sheffield, Kukundakwe was swimming within required range in her training at home - albeit in a short course pool. Her form can be attributed to staying on guard with her physical exercises even during last year’s lockdown.

The dynamics change in a long course one, where one halves the number of times one can swim with the momentum gained from pushing off the wall but her manager and mother Hashima Batamuriza remains positive.
“Coming here early helped us to acclimatize. But more importantly, we are posting good times in training,” she said on Wednesday.

WORLD PARA-SWIMMING SERIES
YESTERDAY’S RESULTS
100m free: 1:24.24
200m IM: 3:24.34