A group of Grahamstown swimmers recently returned from the Telkom South African National Short Course Swimming Championships which took place in Pietermaritzburg.
A group of Grahamstown swimmers recently returned from the Telkom South African National Short Course Swimming Championships which took place in Pietermaritzburg.
Although the swimmers returned with no medals, this was a great learning curve for the swimmers, aged between 14 and 18 years old.
The local swimmers came up against the top swimmers in the country, including Olympic swimmers and a number of swimmers on scholarship in the USA.
Most of the top competitors taking part were in their early 20s and even up to 32 years of age. Mandy Loots, who won a number of events, is a professional Olympian swimmer.
Robyn Charter of DSG made the semi-finals in the 50 metre backstroke and finished 15th in the nation in a new DSG school record of 31.46 seconds.
Her freestyle and butterflyfly times were close to her best. Erin Graham of DSG swam her personal best times in all her events, while Nicky Smith (DSG), in spite of being very unfit, finished close to her best times.
Tammy Price of Kingswood made it through to the 50 metre backstroke and 50 metre butterfly semi-final events. She went on to the 50 metre butterfly final and is now eighth in the nation.
Her brother Calvin made the semis in the 50 metre breaststroke event. Simon Pheasant of Rhodes University, made the semi-finals of the 50 metre backstroke and is now ranked 15th in the nation. This event was won by the current world record holder, Gerhard Zandberg.
