Ugandan swimmers promise better performances

Uganda swimmers who represented the country at the World Swimming Championships in Hungary are looking forward to better future performances after picking valuable lessons from the event.

Uganda was represented by a three-man team at the championships that included Captain Avis Meya, Ismail Serunjogi and Joshua Ekirikubinza with Muzafaru Muwanguzi as coach, at the Danube Arena in Budapest.

The Ugandans who compete at this level without having made the FINA World Championships, qualifying procedure "A" and  or "B" standard times always go out to better their personal or national records.

Team captain Meya who made her debut at this level, set a new national record of 33.05 in the 50m butterfly and believes there is room for improvement following the World Championships experience.

"The experience was good, the exposure valuable and we were able to see how it is done at that stage. It was a bit difficult to adjust from a 25m to a 50m pool but we adpted quickly with the help of coach Muwanguzi and by the time we raced, we were comfortable," Meya said during a meeting at the National Council of Sports following their return last week.

"We are happy and pleased to have represented our country," she said during a small meeting with NCS secretaries David Katende and Patrick Ogwel.

"I still need to work on my diving especially on such blocks, but we also did swim analysis and I realized I have to change some things in my swimming technique that will make me a bit comfortable and swift in the water. I was also able to capture tips on dieting which is very important in swimming," Meya noted.

Having analysed his strokes and that of other swimmers, Tibatemwa is also going to try to work on particular techniques that will help him improve.

"I'm specifically starting to think on working on power and explosiveness over the entire length unlike in the past where my focus was just on endurance. I'm noticing the merits of extremely being powerful from the beginning to the end and maybe focusing on shorter races," Tibatemwa stated.

For Ismah Serunjoji emphasis is now going to be on the butterfly stroke where he set a new national record of 28.57 in the 50m butterfly race.

"The experience was really good, it was my first world championship and I managed to set a new national record but I also got to learn many things from the other swimmers; the way they train, resting periods, even the water was different," Serunjoji noted.