The second edition of the Sailfish Ambrosoli Masters Gala slated for Saturday, 14 June has attracted over 200 swimmers who will be diving into the waters to compete for the grand prize and promote safe swimming as a way of creating awareness about the prevention of drowning.
The one-day event comes after a successful first edition held last year, where Sailfish emerged inaugural winners out of 11 clubs; and this edition, which will be bigger and better, will take place at the Ambrosoli International School in Bugolobi and will have swimmers from 14 Ugandan Swim Clubs.
This particular edition will have swimmers in eight age categories, that is 25 to 29, 30 to 34, 35 to 39, 40 to 44, 45 to 49, 50 to 54, 55 to 59 and 60 years and over. Swimmers will race and be awarded results and medals/trophies in those different age groups for fairness and also to save time.
Participants will compete in 4 swimming strokes; butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, with the gala having 9 individual events done either in 25 meters, 50 meters or 100 meters. It will have the different strokes swum in the length above, then IM the individual medley which is a combination of all four strokes, single stroke relays, medley relays and mixed medley relays. Just to note, though the other events will be done in age groups, relays will be done as teams with no respect to age group.
Elaborating on who can participate in the gala, Coach Joseph Kabagoza, the head coach of Sailfish Swim Club says; “The masters gala simply means adults who are 25 years and above, so even those who have just learned to swim and can manage to swim a length of 25 meters for any stroke are welcome. However, we have experienced swimmers as well. Some have been national swimmers like me. We have all different levels of swimmers.”
The coach emphasises that though the gala is open to everyone, for this edition, the club is taking on clubs and corporate companies. For the individual swimmers, they are advised to join one of the already registered clubs, even sailfish and compete with them.
The overall winners and team winners and teams will receive accolades in their different categories, with each category having winners, runners up and first runners up (for both the men and women).
On the significance of this Gala, coach Kabogoza says; “besides promoting a healthy lifestyle, we are also using swimming. Swimming is the number one layer when it comes to drowning prevention. So, we are promoting drowning prevention. We know that there are lots of adults that drown throughout the year, so by having such events, some people here will give you testimonies that they started just to learn it as a skill and now are picking a lot of interest in the Masters gala so we can call it swim against drowning the theme swim against drowning”
For competitive swimmers they will be using this event to prepare for regional events and continental events, the times that the competitive swimmers will post at the gala will be used as entry times for the regional events that are coming up like Africa Zone 3 championship, which is happening in October in Kenya and Uganda is going to field a Masters team.
Speaking about the inspiration for hosting these Masters’ Gala the coach says; “It’s quite a number of things. One’s fun, forsocializing, but most importantly to promote healthy lifestyles through the sport of swimming and for this one to promote drowning prevention through learn to swim, because most of the adults do not get an opportunity to learn how to swim, but through masters galas, through initiatives like the Masters Gala, the opportunity is open.”
Talking about swimming for adults, Kabogoza says; “It’s one of those sports that I encourage or let me say, physical activities that I encourage adults to take on as it’s good on your knees, you won’t find so many activities that are very good on your knees as you’re aging because it involves a lot of you. You have a lot of pressure applied on your knees as you’re doing physical activities that involve running, but swimming doesn’t have that kind of pressure. So it’s one of those sports. I encourage a lot. It’s a life skill in two forms. One it’s something you’ll learn and you’ll never forget. And two, you never know when you need to save your own life or another person’s life.”
However, the coach is quick to note that learning to swim for adults is relative. It depends on whether you’re a risk taker; you learn so fast. If you have a lot of phobias, it takes some time. There’s no specific time frame for learning or becoming a competent swimmer; it all comes down to an individual.
Patricia, a swimmer with Sailfish Swim Club, shared her excitement about the gala. “I’m looking forward to participating in this year’s gala; it’s such a good exercise as you’re getting older. You have to prepare yourself to participate in the swimming gala and the preparation is part of the fun. That’s where you have to work yourself. You have to come on a Saturday morning at 7:00, which means Friday night means you go home early. Basically, it makes you change your life and you start focusing on being fit so that when you go for the gala, you don’t break yourself. It’s not just the fitness that is useful at that age, it’s the community that has been mentioned. We are making a lot of friends. We are changing our lives and being more focused on being healthy.”
The second edition of the Sailfish Masters’ Gala will be done in partnership with Ambrosoli International School, 7 Hills International School, Multichoice Uganda and Absa Bank Uganda.
“Ambrosoli is a Community School, so we enjoy doing things with the community. The Gala means a lot to us; swimming is a beautiful physical exercise and we’re so happy when we have people from other parts of Kampala come to enjoy things like the gala, going to happen on Saturday 14th of June,” Irene Rosemary Ssemakula, Ambrosoli International School.
Catherine Tucker, head teacher at Seven Hills International School, said; “The best way we can teach our children is to actually inspire them and model it as adults. So, we’re hoping that by sponsoring this event, our kids will not see sports as something that stops when you finish and it’s something that you keep going up until you’re 100.
“I think it was Mahatma Gandhi who said, ‘You’re old; If you stopped learning. So, we really want our kids to be doing a lifelong activity. And also, I think one of the things, there will be people getting gold medals. I don’t think I will be, but we’re promoting taking part and being active and just having fun is as important as doing sports and being active in your future life and particularly swimming has loads and loads of benefits that you know mentally and physically.”
Gates for the Sailfish Masters Gala will open as early as 7:30am, with warmups starting at 8:00am all the way to 9:45, and then the first race will be at 10:00 am sharp. And the races will finish at 3:00 or 4:00 PM. The club hopes that by finishing the event early, they will create an environment where people can stay and socialise after the swimming.