USF take Aquatic Day celebrations online

Innovation. USF president Mwase said there is only space for 20 teams during yesterday’s briefing. PHOTO | MAKHTUM MUZIRANSA

BY MAKHTUM MUZIRANSA
There will be no marching to spread awareness on aquatics sports this time. Nor an open water swimming exhibition at a beach or landing site like in the past years.
The fourth Fina World Aquatics Day celebrations will instead be held on virtual platforms as sports activity continues to be hampered by the Coronavirus lockdown.
“Fina has tasked us as stakeholders to show how we have been surviving without swimming in the pool,” Uganda Swimming Federation (USF) president Moses Mwase, said at a press conference at their officers yesterday.
The Fina World Aquatics Day was launched in 2017 to celebrate and encourage the power of aquatic sports for social wellbeing and development in all corners of the world.
This year, USF will invite its members to enter an online interactive challenge, where they will share one minute videos of “what they are doing to keep in shape during this period, where they cannot swim,” according to USF publicist Erick Kisero. Most swimmers have used this period to step up their dryland activities while USF vice president Peter Mugisha teased that those who want to work on their breathing can practice in bathtubs.

Members will participate as teams with USF currently having only room for 20 teams that can hand in their presentations by email before September 26.
Important virtues
These should confirm participation between September 6 and 7 – two days after the official launch of the competition.
“The videos should display any of the virtues of compassion, teamwork, fun, discipline and must of course be educative and related to swimming,” Mwase said. The presentations will be vetted by a team of three jurors that have been selected by the celebration’s organizing committee headed by Dr. Nana Nakiddu.
The jurors will assess the teams (awarding marks from one to five) in the areas of creativity, originality, uniqueness and inspiration among others with the top three videos set to be rewarded during live Facebook and Instgram streams on October 3.