Three Gambian Swimmers are set to compete at the 18th FINA World Swimming Championship in Gwangju, Korea.
Modou Lamin Saine, Ebrima Sorry Buwaro and Ida Cham will join other African countries in a championship that will serve as one of the Olympic Games Qualifiers for Tokyo 2020.
“Our objective is to win good points to earn direct qualification instead of a wild-card,” says Cherno M.S Jallow, the team’s head coach. “Two of our swimmers have good training at the High Performance Centre in Dakar and they are all in good shape for this championship.”
The Gambia made its Olympic debut in swimming in the 2016 Rio Janeiro Games in Brazil through wild-card qualification. Jallow believes the time has come for the country to meet the Olympic qualifying time of 22.01 seconds in the 50m Freestyle to Tokyo 2020. Wild cards are added to a strict qualification system to encourage greater sports participation worldwide. “We have energetic and skilled swimmers who can do it now. So I’m hopeful that they will clock the standard timing for the games in Tokyo,” he told The Chronicle.
The team will leave Banjul on July 18th for Gwangju.
