Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) said seven national team swimmers have started preparing locally and abroad for the next year’s London Olympic Games.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, TSA technical director Marcelino Ngalioma said though the preparations are not sponsored by the swimming’s governing body but his association is very committed to send good swimmers who will aim to win medals at Games.

He said out of the seven swimmers, three are training locally while the remaining four are training abroad.

Ngalioma named the swimmers who are training locally as Hilal Hilal, Ally Bamba and Omari Abdallah while Magdlena Moshi is training in Austria, Marium Foum and Gouri Kotecha are both training in Kenya and Ammaar Ghadiyali is training in Canada

Ngalioma said Ghadiyali is being trained by international swimming federation qualified and recognized coach Kostantine Danielo. He, however, could not name the trainers of other swimmers.

However, Ngalioma said TSA urged swimmers who are training locally to go abroad where there are 50-meter swimming pools, insisting that the 25-meter pools which they are using locally are not good for preparations for international tournaments as they are not accepted by FINA.

Ngalioma also said Tanzania, like many African countries, will only send two swimmers under the wild cards to the London Olympics. He added that the wild card is provided to countries that are not on the FINA ranking

He said TSA will next year select the two best swimmers, a female and a male, who will represent the country at the Games.