JUNIOR swimming sensation, Robyn Lee, kept the Zimbabwean flag flying high at the African Junior Swimming Championships with an additional two medals on day two to take her medal haul at the continental gala to four in Cairo, Egypt on Sunday evening.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
After claiming two gold medals in the 100m breaststroke and butterfly competitions on Saturday, Lee continued her superb form by winning gold and silver medals in the 50m backstroke and the 200m butterfly respectively on Sunday.
Lee’s best perfomance of the night came in the 50m backstroke final, where she set a new Zimbabwean and Championship record with a winning time of 29,95 seconds.
The 16-year-old star finished well clear of the rest of the field, as Egypt’s Engie Mohamed came second in 30.84, while South Africa’s Bailey Desmarais claimed the bronze medal in 31,12 seconds. Later in the evening, Lee made her way to the podium again, this time for the silver medal in the girls’ 200m butterfly, when she finished the race in 2:23.74. Algeria’s Samar Khacha won the gold medal after coming first in 2:23.33.
Zimbabwe’s other representative in Egypt Liam O’Hara came agonisingly close to winning the country’s fifth medal at the continental championships after coming fourth in boys’ breaststroke final.
The Falcon College student posted a personal best time of 1:11.25 in the race, which was won by Algeria’s Moncef Aymen Balam in 1:06.71.
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St Johns’ College student Liam Davis also made it to the final of the boys’ 50m backstroke, where he finished in eighth position in 32,11 seconds.
Another upcoming Zimbabwean swimmer, Nomvula Mjimba narrowly missed out on a place in the final of the girls 13-14 100m backstroke after finishing 13th overall, with a time of 1:24.97.
Mjimba was a student at Dominican Convent in the capital before recently being awarded a swimming scholarship to study in South Africa.
With two more days of competition remaining, Zimbabwe, who are represented by four swimmers, will be pinning their hopes on Lee to add to her already impressive medal collection.
