Talons defend lead, determined to stay top

Talons garnered 441 points on matchday 19 of the Uganda Swimming League (USL) last Friday at British School of Kampala, Muyenga,  to defend their lead of the three-team log.
The defending champions have topped six of the 19 match days thus far but only got to the top of the overall points table on matchday 18.

After staying there for an extra week, coach Musa Galabuzi’s side are “vowing to stay top till the end of the league.”
The last two match days have favoured most of Talons’ explosive swimmers as they were tailormade to prepare the entire Altona Swim Club for the national championships next month.

Matchday 18 was dominated by 50m events while last Friday had 125m breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke that are believed to be good training for 100m events in high stake competitions. 
Talons won the 125m fly with 64 points from its six swimmers while Colts, who had the fastest swimmer in perennial record breaker Tara Kisawuzi, and Astros – with the swimmer of the day Ethan Kunihira – had 46 and 61 points.
Talons then won the first round of the 8x75m freestyle relay while Astros edged Colts as Kisawuzi used the event to recover her energy for the 125m backstroke.

Astros, however, won the backstroke event with 103 points as Colts came second with 96. A disqualification for Ethan Kalungi relegated Talons to 80 for their first real challenge of the day.
But Galabuzi’s side quickly recovered to top the second round of the 8x75m free relay.

The swim down strategy in the relays seemed to work for Kisawuzi in the individual races. Talons captain Abigail Mwagale dominated the first 100m of the 125m breaststroke event but Kisawuzi managed to summon another level of energy for the final lap to break another record on the day.

Colts and Astros problems, however, continued in the relays as Talons recovered late to win the 15x25m free relay and stay top for yet another week.
Meanwhile, the league got the endorsement of the swimming federation and according to its manager Erick Kisero, “will make contributions to support USF activities on a monthly basis.”

Uganda Swimming League
MATCHDAY 19 POINTS
Talons     441
Astros    395
Colts     325 
Overall Standings
Talons    5,456
Colts    5,315
Astros     5,201
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