Kuwait City, Kuwait, May 19, 2022: With one day remaining in poolside action at the 3rd Gulf Games, Kuwait swimming national coach Simone Testasecca was beaming from ear to ear after the host nation grabbed three more gold medals on the penultimate day to take its golden tally to nine.
“Our target at these Games was to win 10 gold medals. With one day remaining, I believe we can achieve, if not surpass, that target,”
Italian Testasecca beamed at the Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed Aquatics Centre on Thursday, May 19.
On the third day of competition, Kuwait won three gold medals in the men’s 50m freestyle (Waleed Abdulrazzaq), the men’s 100m breaststroke (Rashed Al Tarmoom) and in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay. Mama Mia, things are happening for the hosts poolside.
“The last couple of years have been tough on everyone, mainly due to COVID, but I’m glad that all the hard work and dedication by the athletes is paying off,” Testasecca said. “I’m very pleased with the outcome, whatever happens tomorrow.”
Testasecca, 30, arrived in Kuwait in October 2019 to take charge of the national swimming programme. In the last two-and-a-half years, a lot of progress has been made despite the huge challenge of overcoming the nomadic lifestyle of the national squad.
“The national squad does not have a pool and we train as the guests of the clubs. I hope one day the swimming federation will have their own pool but despite all this we have made progress,” the Montesilvano native says.
The senior national pool is 10-strong, and encouragingly, female athletes are also starting to come through. One such athlete, Lara Dasthi, competed at the Tokyo Olympics on an IOC invite. Kuwait also qualified another swimmer for Tokyo on B timings – male swimmer Abbas Qali who took part in the 100 butterfly.
Qali has been on fire at these Games and took his gold tally to five on Thursday evening after he was part of the 4x200 freestyle relay team which won gold. He had earlier won gold medals in the 100 and 200 butterfly as well as being part of the relay teams in the 4x100 free and 4x100 IM.
“There is young talent coming through. Our goal is to try and qualify a couple of swimmers for the Paris 2024 Olympics, as well as do creditably at the Asian Games,” Testasecca revealed.
