Pursuit League: Flames show grit to close gap

Paula Nabukeera, Carlyn Nabiryo and Yeta Magola showed incredible leadership to help Flames win the second match of the 2023 Pursuit Swimming League at British School of Kampala (BSK) Muyenga on Friday.

Like Jets, Flames are yet to get a substantive team manager so all their planning is left to their captain Nabukeera.

Initially, the task threatened to be overwhelming for her as Flames registered just one personal best worth four points - from Magola (1:27.35), in the 100m backstroke - a stroke said to be Nabukeera's best.

For context, Jets who would eventually finish last on the day got 24 points from the PB challenge thanks to their captain Sonia Mwere (1:24.22), Ethan Kunihira (1:29.55) and Elijah Wamala (1:28.92).

The three aforementioned Flames, however, battled their way out of trouble and combined with Elijah Kabonge to top four of the 10 relays, while coming second in two to amass 384 scores from their events. 

That earned them the maximum five points for winning match day two and took their overall tally to seven points. This puts them just two points behind first placed Talons on the overall table.

Had the league resolved to keep the cumulative scores, rather than reward the day's perfomance with points five to one, Flames (which had 204 scores last week) would still be needing 102 points to catch Talons and 64 to reach Colts.

Talons had one PB from Blessing Kaitesi (1:23.96) but looked to be balanced in the breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle relays as they held forte to finish second on the day.

Caspian Guma (1:27.11) had Astros' lone PB while Abigail Segujja (1:40.70) and Adriel Lumu (1:27.94) did the honours for Colts. 

Colts and Astros were level on 294 scores at the end of the night and needed to be separated by a 4*50m medley relay swim-off that the former won comfortably to take third place.

Match Two Performance 

Event                     Talons Colts Jets Flames Astros  

100m back (PBs)  10         14     24     04          04

4*50m free            40         20     30     50          10

8*25m fly               20         50     40     30          10

4*50m breast        50         40     10     30          20

12*25m back        30         40     10     20         50

4*50m medley      40         20     30     50          30

12*25m fly            20         30      10     50         40

8*25m breast       50         30     10      20         40

4*50m back          30         20     40      50         10

12*25m free         30        -20     20      40         50

4*50m fly              10        50      20      40         30

Total                     330      294    244    384      294

Day's Points          4           3        1        5           2

*Swim off determined third team after Colts, Astros drew ended the races level on 294 scores.

OVERALL POINTS

Talons - 9

Flames, Colts - 7

Jets - 4

Astros - 3