Ugandan swimmer Gloria Anna Muzito doubled her gold collection from the Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night.
Despite being second seed, Muzito clocked a national record (NR) 55.26, with an opening split of 26.37, to win gold at the expense of top qualifier Gizem Guvenc (55.47) from Turkey and Senegal’s Oumy Diop (57.48).
About 45 minutes later, Muzito got silver in the 200m freestyle clocking another NR 2:04.99 behind Turkey’s Ecem Donmez Ogretir (2:03.89). The 22 year old swimmer whose name Muzito translates to heavy from Luganda is clearly ‘heavy with medals.’
In the 200m, she split 30.24 in the first 50m then 32.16 in the second 50m, built up to 31.81 in the third 50m, and closed out sprinting at 30.78 for her silver. Interestingly, her closing split was faster than Ogretir’s 30.81, but the Turkish swimmer had already given herself a chance with impressive splits in between.
It is impressive how Muzito has managed to medal all through her individual events amidst the pressure of taking part in heats, semifinals, and finals. While at it, she has also been a huge show in the relays.
After winning the women’s 50m freestyle gold on Sunday, Muzito hit the pool again for individual glory on Monday night in the women’s 100m free, clocking 57.29 seconds with a 26.98 opening split to top the second semifinals.
Team performance
Her teammate Tara Naluwoza Kisawuzi was in the first semi but finished 6th clocking 1:01.97 with a 29.31 opening split thereby missing the final.
Earlier on Monday, the team had taken part in the mixed 4x100m medley relay. In the morning heats, Kisawuzi opened with the backstroke leg and clocked 1:15.51 before handing over to male swimmers Tendo Mukalazi and Jesse Ssengonzi who clocked 1:10.21 in the breaststroke and 54.86 in the butterfly legs respectively. Muzito closed it out with a 55.71 in the freestyle for a cumulative time of 4:16.29 to finish second in their heat behind Turkey (4:09.61).
In the Monday evening’s final, the arrangement stayed the same but Kisawuzi lowered her time to 1:14.07, Mukalazi to 1:09.16, Ssengonzi to 53.54 to allow Muzito, who was a bit fatigued for the evening to return in 56.14. The overall time was 4:12.91 to rank 6th.
Mukalazi also took part in the men’s 100m free on Monday morning clocking 53.99 with a 25.84 opening split.
Ssengonzi to close
On Tuesday, before her two medals, Muzito first took care of her 200m free heats duties in the morning. She split 30.51, 33.18, 33.25, 32.03 across each 50m to finish third in her heat and as 4th best qualifier. The aforementioned times in the finals show how impressive her improvement en route to bagging silver was.
Meanwhile, Mukalazi took part in the men’s 50m breaststroke heats on Tuesday and clocked 31.16.
Jesse Ssengonzi also made the finals of 100m butterfly that were due (Wednesday night). First he clocked 54.87 in the heats on Tuesday with a 26.00 opening split. Then in the semis, he lowered the 53.32 NR he made in August at the World Championships in Singapore to 53.30 with an opening 24.82 split to go for the final as second qualifier behind Uzbekistan’s Eldorbek Usmonov (52.92).