- Over 250 swimmers expected
- Swimmers from Zim to participate
More than 250 participants will dunk themselves in the water when Darell Morton’s School of Swimming (DMSS Gators Swimming Club) holds its 4th annual swimming gala at the University of Botswana Aquatic Centre from 13 to 16 April 2023.
Swimmers from neighbouring Zimbabwe will join swimmers from nine clubs in Botswana in what is billed as one of the best swimming competitions in the country. “This year we decided to invite two qualified officials from South Africa to run a workshop and oversee the competition for training purposes,” the Vice Chairman of DMSS Gators Swimming Club, Thobo Moleko, said in an interview.
“We believe this will set a high standard for how we run competitions locally. We strongly believe in training and ensuring that our competitions are of high international standards.” She added that in addition to having some of the best swimmers in the country and from Zimbabwe compete, the swimming gala will also serve as a platform for new developmental swimmers to be introduced to the sport and life skill.
“In addition, with support from the Botswana Swimming Sports Association, the event will provide much-needed training of competition officials to better serve our athletes,” Moleko said. “The programme includes a pre-training competition workshop. This will certainly raise the level and standard of local competitions.” She emphasised the importance of swimming as a sport and took the opportunity of the interview to encourage Batswana to take it up because it has various benefits.
“Swimming is a beautiful sport that helps swimmers learn to work together, to encourage each other, to communicate and to become leaders,” said Moleko, who also a swimming coach. “All these skills translate into effective leaders in adulthood. Apart from being a fun form of exercise, swimming also improves memory function and thinking skills.” This year’s DMSS Swimming Gala has been made possible by various sponsors and collaborations that include Bokomo, Emergency Assist, and Showgroup Productions.
More sponsors are expected to confirm coming on board in the course of time. Meanwhile, Moleko has explained that DMSS Gators Swimming Club is the non-profit competitive body of Darrell Morton’s School of Swimming, (established in 1999) and is registered with the Registrar of Societies. DMSS Gators aims to provide swimmers an opportunity to be exposed to developmental and high-level competitions.
