Husnah Kukundakwe and Condoleezza Thembo Nakazibwe left the World Para Swimming Championships stage in Singapore with enhanced reputations.
The Ugandan representatives hit their time targets and the latter took it a notch further by making the finals of all her four events.
Last Wednesday, her 1:11.76 in the women’s 100m freestyle S8, gave her a 3rd place finish in the heats. She split 34.31 at the halfway mark to lower her own African record (AR) from the 1:12.40 that she managed at the World Series earlier in Indianapolis in April to qualify for Singapore.
In the final, she split 34.43 and finished 8th in a time of 1:12.23, which is her second best performance in the event.
On Thursday, the 18 year old gave her all to clock a 32.49 in the women’s 50m freestyle S8 preliminaries lowering her own 32.58 AR. She further sunk it to 31.93 in the finals, where she missed a podium finish by a whisker.
Russia’s Viktoriia Ishchiulova, swimming under a neutral flag, clocked 31.30 to win the race and was followed by China’s Zhu Hui (31.39) and Italy’s Xenia Francesca Palazzo (31.44) – who also won 100m free bronze behind Great Britain’s Alice Tai and USA’s Jessica Long.
On Friday, Uganda’s Paralympian needed a bit of luck to make the finals but the fortune is always in the preparation and showing up. After placing 9th overall in the heats of the women’s 200m individual medley SM8 with a time of 3:03.72 just ahead of Germany’s Jeanne Maack Mira (3:05.26), Kukundakwe had done her bit. She had not competed in an IM event at the world stage in over a year and an AR was good enough.
But she was brought in as a replacement after Palazzo, who made 2:58.51 in the prelims, withdrew for medical reasons. Kukundakwe finished 8th with a slightly better time of 3:03.51.
In the 100m breaststroke SB8, on Saturday, Kukundakwe’s 1:28.54 got her to her fourth final in four days. Interestingly, she finished 7th with a new personal best of 1:27.37 in the finals and she beat Ishchiulova (1:28.86), who also had silver in the IM.
The 100m breaststroke SB8 AR, however, remains one of those she aims for. It still belongs to South Africa’s retired Natalie Du Toit, who set it at 1:25.95 at the World Championships in Eindhoven Netherlands on August 16, 2010.
Nakazibwe, just 13, also made an impressive 33.61 in the women’s 50m freestyle S9 on Saturday to cap Uganda’s performance at the Championships.
“The swimmers performed very well with 100% improvement. In my opinion it is the best performance for Husnah particularly, if compared to the previous events we have taken part in. We did not do well at the Paralympics in France and that taught us something to work on and since the Series in the USA, we have been registering good positions with excellent times
“We are now looking forward to the Commonwealth Games. Condoleezza is also a mentally strong girl with a huge passion for the sport. Usually, you would struggle with a young girl pushing her up to race at that level, but she managed,” coach Muzafaru Muwanguzi, said.
World Para Swimming Championships
Kukundakwe’s performance
Women 100m freestyle S8: 1:11.76 (African record, prelims), 1:12.23 (finals)
Women 50m freestyle S8: 32.49 (prelims), 31.93 (African record, finals)
Women 200m IM SM8: 3:03.72 (prelims), 3:03.51 (African record finals)
Women 100m breaststroke SB8: 1:28.54 (prelims), 1:27.37 (finals)
Nakazibwe’s performance
Women 50m freestyle S9: 33.61 (prelims)