Easter term is always a full and exciting time for our swimming program. The germination and growth of fruits is evident as the swimming culture starts to settle in at Turi. The following is how we continue to seek the Highest in our bid to become the best school in Africa;-

George Gicheru Memorial Swimming Gala

This year the term started with the George Gicheru Memorial Swimming Gala hosted by Greensteads International School.  This gala commemorates a life that was humble and sacrificial for others and is a remembrance event. Mr. George Gicheru was a swimming lifeguard at Greensteads International School, who was shot and passed away trying to save people during a robbery. It gives us such a great pleasure to be part of a team honouring a noble gentleman with a character like his. The Swimming Phoenix’s performed exceptionally well in this first event of the season placing second out of three teams and registering a better performance from the two previous years, with a total of 452 points close to the overall winning team that got 534 points.  Team Turi left the event feeling strong, encouraged and ready for the other up-coming events of the season.

Inter-house Swimming Gala

This is an annual internal event that provides all students with an opportunity to showcase the growth and skills that have been developed through the Swimming program.  This year, all the preparatory students attended the first Inter-house Swimming Gala Try-outs and had an opportunity to train together as a House team.  House captains received the swimming times of each house member and the students took on the leadership role

in assigning the swimmers to represent each house.  Allowing the houses and captains to take ownership of the team representatives was both empowering for the students and presented excellent results.  Elgon House swept the Inter-house Swimming Gala trophy with an impressive and outstanding margin over all the other houses.

Up-Country Swimming Gala

The Up-Country Gala hosted three teams namely, Pembrook House, Greansteads International School and our special guests; a team that comprised of a few schools from Kisumu. The event really demonstrated the potential the Swimming Phoenix Squad has this year and how far the squad has evolved.

With Team Turi putting in a record best performance ever! The team missed the first place position by a matter of races coming in at Second place with a registration of many personal, seasonal and lifetime best times recorded.

Banda Friendly Gala

Next was the Banda Friendly Gala with another great performance where the Swimming Phoenix Squad drew with the Banda team.  The gala normally allows us to gauge where we are with our Nairobi neighbours and areas we need to strengthen. This is the first recorded occurrence of the Swimming Phoenixes tying on points with The Banda School. Our students were in high spirits and had worked hard for the meet. Our girls registered a top performance with the boys coming in second overall.

The IAPS Kenya Swimming Championship 2019

This is one of the largest events of the season with a record ten IAPS schools competing.  We are proud of our students and delighted to say that St. Andrews School Turi came in at the 6^th overall position, leaving the event with a total of nine medals and two positions better than the 2018 performance.  Team Turi registered a new record of seven (7) Lifetime Best performances, and fourteen (14) Personal Best performance times out of a total of thirty (30) individual events swam at the meet. In the relay events, the Swimming Phoenix’s registered a total of three (3) lifetime Best Relay performances, and a record ten (10) Relay Best performances out of a total of twelve (12) relays swam. Since disqualifications also add up to the teams’ overall points and placings, we also registered a new record low of two (2) DQs- disqualifications this year. Our U9 and U11 squads stole the show with an impressive overall performance, hence showing that the future of swimming at St. Andrews School Turi is bright.

Mr. Mapetla and the rest of the Turi community are thrilled to see the improvement of all the Turi swimmers and excited to see the growth of the Swimming Phoenix. We are looking forward to continued improvements to be displayed throughout the remainder of the swimming term and coming years.

Mr. Ibrahim Mapetla

Head of Swimming

St Andrew’s Preparatory School, Turi