Africa-Press – Angola. With the aim of appearing in the second or third place, the National Team participates for the 10th time in the African Swimming Championship in zone IV, starting on Wednesday, at the Alvalade swimming pool, in Luanda.
In the competition, to be held from Wednesday to Sunday, the board of the Angolan Swimming Federation (FAN) ruled out the possibility of winning the first position, given the total favoritism of South Africa.
To fulfill its aim, the country registered 60 athletes for the event, in pure swimming (swimming pool) and 20 in open waters (sea).
Despite the self-removal of the experienced international Pedro Pinotes, by the rules of the organization of Zonal IV, the national combined is more filled with athletes who evolve abroad, in relation to the previous edition.
The return of the elite group stands out, namely the leader of the senior female ranking, Lia Lima (645 pts) and in males Salvador Gordo (1st with 737 pts), Henrique Mascarenhas (2nd with 721 pts) and Daniel Francisco (3rd ° with 660 pts), all absent from the 2022 zonal, held in Lusaka.
In the squad, there are other big names of the modality like Marco Furtado, Maria Freitas, N’hara Fernandes, Rhanya Santo and Rafaela Santo (open waters) who won medals in individual in 2022, where Angola was in eighth place.
However, her best achievement came in 2015. In addition to making her debut as an organizer, she achieved an unprecedented second position.
In its trajectory, Angola was in Lusaka2013 and ranked 10th, with a young team in which Herinques Mascarenhas (11 years old), Catarina Sousa (12), Maria Cipcic (14), the latter silver in the 50 meter breaststroke (37s.15d) and Ana Nóbrega (22).
In 2014, in Kampala (Uganda), it ranked fourth. In 2015, as the story goes, Angola hosted and secured second place.
In previous seasons (2016), in Mauritius, the national combined ranked fifth, while in 2017, in Zimbabwe, it was 12th. In 2018, in Malawi, he was ranked 11th.
In 2019, in Namibia, it ranked seventh and dropped one place in 2020 by placing eighth, in a competition won by South Africa.
The test was not played in 2021 due to Covid-19.
César Ribeiro, Claúdio Brandão and Maria Graça were the coaches who most guided the national team in this event, whose podium is generally dominated by South Africa, current champions.
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
