Africa Juniors Finals – Heer
800m free: 9:42.33 (prelims), 9:31.68 (finals)
200m back: 2:21.95 (prelims), 2:21.38 (finals)
Heer Usadadiya made it to two finals of the prestigious Africa Junior Swimming Championships held in Mauritius from December 6 to 10.
Despite making his continental debut, Heer was the busiest of the travelling team of six Ugandan swimmers. He had one long distance event in the pool, four middle distance ones and a few sprints before he shifted focus to the open water competition.
In the 800m freestyle, Heer clocked free: 9:42.33 (nine minutes, 42 seconds and 33 seconds) to make the finals, where he made further cuts in time to 9:31.68.
The 14 year old showed he was not being affected by nerves when he also reduced his 200m backstroke time from 2:21.95 in the prelims to 2:21.38 in the finals.
After competing in the pool, Usadadiya led the performance in the 5km open water swimming event. He finished sixth in the 14-15 year’s age group with a time of 1:01:41.00 (one hour, one minute and 41 seconds).
