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Other Sports of Monday, 11 November 2013

Source: Williams Kyei

Ghana Participates in the 1st Lagos International Swimming Classics

The Ghana Swimming Team would be participating in the 1st Lagos



International Swimming Classics hosted by the Lagos State Swimming



Association from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10thNovember, 2013 at the Teslim



Balogun Stadium Swimming Pool, Surule, Lagos - Nigeria. This maiden event



is the brainchild of the Nigeria Aquatics Federation to bring together top



swimmers from the Africa Zone 2 (West and Central Africa) member



Federations to compete for honours and improve their times ahead of major



international swimming events.







A team of Nine (9) comprising five swimmers (3 boys and 2 girls), three



Officials and media personnel would be representing the country at this



Africa event. The officials are; Theophilus Wilson Edzie; President &



leader of Delegation, Jonathan Amoako Attah - Team coach, Kwami Kpodoh;



FINA Referee & Technical Director who will be officiating at the event with



Cecil Stanley Tagoe as a Media personnel from Ghana Television Sports.







The current top seed Swimmers representing Ghana includes; Kwaku Addo -



Ghana's best 50m Freestyle (25.74sec), Kwesi Abbiw Jackson - Best 100m



Freestyle (58.68secs), Abeiku Gyakye Jackson - Best 100m & 200m Butterfly



(1:09.84 & 2:55.62secs), Ophelia Swayne - Best Female in 50m Freestyle &



Butterfly (28.10sec & 29.86secs) and Benedicta Elikplim - Best Female in



100m Butterfly (1:23.50secs). Kwaku Addo will compete in the 50m



Freestyle/Butterfly, Kwesi Abbiw Jackson in 50m/100m Freestyle, Abeiku



Jackson in 100m Freestyle and 50m/100m/200m Butterfly. Opphelia Swayne



would be aiming to better her times in the 50m Freestyle and 50m butterfly



with Benedicta Elikplim going in for the 50m Free and 100m Butterfly.







Ghana is bound to face stiff competition from other competing nations like



Nigeria (host), Burkina Faso, Gambia, Senegal, Cote D'Ivoire, Togo, Benin,



Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Niger, Cameroun and Congo Brazzaville. The



young swimmers are however upbeat about their participation and hopes to



win some of the medals and cash prizes at stake and improve significantly



in their respective times.







Another uphill task after the Lagos Classics is the African Juniors



Swimming Championship to be held in Zambia from 28thNovember to 2nd



December, 2013 where the swimmers would be aiming for qualifying slots for



the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in China as well as the 2014 Commonwealth



Games in Glasgow.







The team left Accra on Wednesday.







Williams Kyei



Secretary General



Ghana Swimming Association



Email: swimming@sportscouncil.com.gh



Tel: +233 208763071



Fax: +233 302666620



Web:



http://www.sportscouncil.com.gh/maincat_select_discipline.cfm?disciplineID=1



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