The Botswana Swimming Sport Association (BSSA) said it is pleased with Botswana’s level two citizens and non-citizen team which garnered six medals at the recent Confederation Africaine De Natation Amateur (CANA).
Led by team manager Mandy Freeman and coach, Owen Caple the team collected 21 medals and took position six out of nine countries. The team brought home eight gold, four silver and nine bronze medals.
“We are satisfied with position 6 because we sent a really small team due to financial constraints, we are going to work hard to ensure that next year’s CANA is well represented and we will definitely get a better position,” said BSSA Secretary Bongi Ruele in an interview.
She said the team performed well despite having only seven girls and boys (in each team) turn up for the event. Botswana also came with young swimmers, some as young as 11 years old, and they got their first international exposure. Ruele said the success of this team bodes well for the future of swimming in Botswana.
“The hours of training and the commitment they have made to this sport certainly paid off as personal best times were recorded for every one of these swimmers,” said Ruele.
Botswana was using their best level 2 swimmers in this event. This was the first time that CANA was attended without Level 3 swimmers. Ruele said this was a blessing in disguise “as part of development we are giving the level 2 swimmers exposure to these competitions.”