Pursuit League: Swimmers hitting right form as Nationals near

After over a month's hiatus, the Altona swimmers returned to the British School of Kampala (BSK) - Muyenga pool last Friday to renew their rivalries in the Pursuit Swim League.

The swimmers spent part of the last 30 days preparing and competing at the Speedo Invitational in Dubai, where most of them were getting their first experience at long course swimming.

On Friday night, coach Erick Kisero was happy to see most of his swimmers in good form, especially because "the national (club championships) are at the end of the month."

Altona is yet to participate in any inter-club competition in the country but Kisero had his swimmers' times on the night compared to those made by their colleagues at other clubs in the previous club meets. Of course it is hard to know what improvements their rivals have made over the past few months but the Altona are confident the Nationals will be exciting. 

Back to the Pursuit League, Jets owned the night as Nailah Nakitto, Michael Kato and David Mwere set the pace with personal bests in the backstroke events before handing the mantle to Elijah Wamala and Sonia Mwere to do the same in 50m freestyle.

From there, they went on to top the butterfly and backstroke relays to fend off competition from Colts - who topped the breaststroke and freestyle relays - and moved joint second on the overall points table with 38 points.

At the end of the night, bottom-placed Astros and table toppers Talons were level on 220 scores after eight events but the latter won the 8*25m backstroke swim-off to take the day's third place that comes with three points. 

Flames' pursuit to get to the top of the table was curtailed as they never got going from the start. They managed just one point to take their overall tally to 38 points - three behind Talons.

PURSUIT LEAGUE
MATCH 12 RESULTS
Event                    Astros  Colts   Flames   Jets   Talons
50m fly (PBs)           -          -            20         -         -
50m back (PBs)       -          -            50        60      60
50m breast (PBs)    40       50           -          50       -
50m free (PBs)        70       60          20        70      70
8*25m fly relay        30       40          20         50     10
8*25m back relay    20       40          10         50      30
8*25m breast relay  30       50          10         20      40
8*25m free relay      30       50          20        40       10
Total  Score             220     290        150       340    220
Match Day Points     2         4             1          5       3

Overall Points
Talons - 41
Jets, Flames - 38
Colts - 37
Astros - 26