Brice Hirwa, who works with The New Times, struck two medals at the just-concluded Mako Sharks Masters Swimming competition held over the weekend at Green Hills Academy.
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The one-day amateurs swimming competition organised by the Mako Sharks Swimming team was aimed at encouraging more Rwandans to practice the swimming sport.
Hirwa, who swims at Cercle Sportif de Kigali, struck silver in Freestyle 25m and bronze after finishing as the second runner-up in the in Breaststroke 25m category.
"It’s so exciting and amazing to win two medals in my first time competing. I am so overwhelmed. The hard work and dedication has paid off. "I won two medals but I hope for more to come,” Hirwa told Times Sports.
"All those early mornings in cold water, all those laps that my teammates and I swam have put us in this position.
Swimming is one of the most physically demanding sports, you have to train hard and be consistent to get at a good level, I am so glad that my efforts are rewarding,” he added.
About 47 athletes participated in the tournament, competing in various age groups.
Sakufi Rumongi Kagenza, a lecturer at African Leadership University (ALU), is one of the athletes who bagged most medals at the competition. He won four medals including one in butterfly 25m, two in freestyle 25m and 50m respectively and one more in backstroke 25m.
The 37-year-old, who swims at Nyarutarama Tennis Club for fitness purposes, welcomed the initiative to organise a special swimming competition for amateurs before calling on organisers to bring more competitions that bring people together.
"This is a great initiative. We need to have more competitions because there is a big number of adults who are interested in these kinds of competitions,” Rumongi said.
Mako Sharks SC President James Bazatsinda said that they are happy with how the competition went down and that they organised a special competition for amateurs to show Rwandans that the game is not just for young people.
"You see that there are 50-year-old people who played and finished, this shows that they started playing long ago," Bazatsinda said.
"We are going to find sponsors to make this event even more popular. We will encourage more companies to bring their staff to compete," he added.