I’m still determined to be a top swimmer despite Covid

My name is Macrine Adhiambo Kalombo, a pupil at Riara Primary School in Nairobi and I love Kiswahili.

I also love swimming and I’m now in Level 3, according to the school swimming club grading.

When Covid-19 landed, I stopped swimming for three months.

This made me very sad because I could not see my best friend Eliana and our coach, Mr Karani, who we also call Mr Fish.

He has helped me a lot to achieve the level three stage. Thanks to my swimming, I have been able to travel to many places outside the country such as Uganda and Dubai.

Those have been the best experiences of my life.

The experience has given me inspiration to pursue the dream of becoming the world’s best swimmer in the Olympics, representing my country.

During quarantine, I have been doing a lot of exercise as encouraged by my coach to keep fit in readiness for resumption of regular swimming programmes.

On August 15, the school informed us that we would resume our training. I was excited because I could now see my best friend and teammates but then I realised that we would have to social distance even in the pool.

Since we could not wear a mask in the pool, we had to take turns of six at a time to maintain the social distance.

Unfortunately, my best friend has not been attending swimming lessons since we resumed training because her mother got a stroke so she has been staying at home taking care of her.

She told me that she would resume swimming when her mum’s condition improves.

Some of my teammates also don’t attend training because they fear coronavirus.

My father always drops me off at the pool for the lessons. The coach takes us through warm-ups before entering the pool because it has been very chilly.

I have a two-hour schedule, four days a week, and I am determined to keep training to meet my goal of representing Kenya in the Olympics.

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