Swimfest Competition: Ikoyi Club 1938 to defend title in Germany

The young swimmers of Ikoyi Club 1938 are once again ready to do the nation proud by coming out first at the forthcoming Swimfest International Swimming Competition, Arnsberg, Germany.

Their Chief Coach, Pius Adegboye, told our correspondent on Wednesday in Lagos at the training for U-13 swimmers, that the Nigerian swimmers were ready to rule the competition again.

It was reported that Ikoyi Club 1938 won the last invitational swimming competition held in the city of Neheim-Husten with 42 gold, 39 silver and 35 bronze medals.

Ikoyi Club 1938, made up of school children will, however, be aiming to beat others again as they square up against other world young swimmers in the city of Arnsberg, Germany.

The clubs invitational competition is expected to take place between May 18 and 20.

The club according to Adegboye, will be aiming at defending its title won last year.

The club will travel with 35 tested swimmers within its rank and they are already going through trials at the swimming pool of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

Adegboye said the young swimmers, having produced spectacular performances last year would not let its guard down this year by coming out tops.

“We had an excellent performance last year, and this year will not be an exception. This is the reason we started training on time to prepare well ahead.

“We want to defend our title won last year through hard work and diligence, the young lads are ready to take on other swimmers across the world again,’’ he said.

Also, Coach Tough Atelewo said that coming out tops in the 40 clubs championships was no fluke, adding that they were set to airborne the best athletes to the competition.

“We will present the best swimmers for this year’s competition because we did not win last year by accident; we are going to the competition with about 35 swimmers for this year’s edition.

“We are promising more gold medals this year to surpass our last year’s achievements. The trainings are going on smoothly and we train for two or three hours in the stadium.

“We have a very good presence in almost all the categories which includes, Breaststrokes, Butterflies, Freestyles, Medley and others.

“Our main target is to surpass that 42 gold medals won last year,’’ she said.