Tanzanian Ammaar Ghadiyali put up a promising performance at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, winning Heat 1 of the Men’s 50m Butterfly.
Mariam Foum of Tanzania competes in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke heat during the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, yesterday. Foum finished second in her heat.
Three of Tanzania’s four swimmers at the Commonwealth Games were in action on the first day of the event on Thursday.
Ghadiyali lined up against Storm Halbich and Dillon Gooding, both from St Vincent and the Grenadines, and finished first in 28.11 seconds.
He went into the contest boasting best qualifying time (30.11) over his heat 1 opponents Halbich (33.62) and Gooding, (32.40) and the Tanzanian ace lived up to expectations as he outshone his opponents.
Another Tanzanian swimmer Hilal Hilal could not emulate his compatriot’s feat after finishing out of top three in his Heat. Hilal lined up in Heat 3 against Sikandar Khan (Pakistan), Emidio Jose Cuna (Mozambique), James Sanderson (Gibraltar), Thomas Gallichan (Jersey), Milimo Mweetwa (Zambia), Stanford Kawale (Papua New Guinea) and Chris Regis (Grenada). Female participant Mariam Foum competed in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke – lining up in Heat 1 against Maldives’s Aishath Sajina and Martha Opiyo from Kenya.
Foum, with a 37.19 qualifying time, looked favourite to come out on top against Aishath and Martha with 42.11 and 37.80 respectively.
However, the Tanzanian finished in second place behind Opiyo in 37.61. Meanwhile, Tanzania’s Abubakari Nzige was shown the door on the first day of the judo competition after he lost his Men’s 66kg preliminary round bout to Mohd Fikri of Malaysia.
The contest lasted 59 seconds as Fikri succeeded to throw Nzige to the canvas by ‘Uchi-mata’, an inner thigh throw technique which is difficult to defend against. Andrew Mlugu put in a spirited fight against Zambia’s Mathews Punza in the Men’s -66kg Preliminary Round of 32 but lost the duel in the end.
Mlugu was thrice penalised during the longest-fought judo match and had his dream of making it to the Round of 16 ending up in smoke as he conceded defeat after five minutes of strong resistance.
Another Tanzanian judoka Ahmed Magogo was due to face South African Daniel le Grange but the bout was cancelled for unknown reasons. Magdalena Moshi starts her campaign on Friday when she lines up against her compatriot Foum in Heat 2 of the Women’s 50m Freestyle.
The Tanzanian duo will be up against Evelina Afoa (Samoa), Onika George (Guyana), Rachel Wall (Antigua and Barbuda) and Aminath Shajan (Maldives).
Hilal is also back in action today, competing in the men’s 50m butterfly, Heat 2 while Ghadiyali is lined up in Heat 1 of the Men’s 200m Freestyle.
Source Tanzania Daily News