Fifteen Victoria Girls' High School pupils took to the pool on Friday at 6pm to test their endurance, swimming as many laps as they could. It was the school's third annual swim-a-thon over a 12- hour period, starting at 6pm and ending at 6am on Saturday.
Fifteen Victoria Girls' High School pupils took to the pool on Friday at 6pm to test their endurance, swimming as many laps as they could. It was the school's third annual swim-a-thon over a 12- hour period, starting at 6pm and ending at 6am on Saturday.
Marné Mostert, VG's star “swim-a-thoner” doggedly outdid herself again, by setting herself the target of swimming 700 laps of the 25 metre pool (target in 2009 was 600 and she went on to swim 668), then decided that 712 was a special number and proceeded to achieve this in a time of six hrs and 35 min. That is an extraordinary 17.8km of swimming.
“Her willpower knows no bounds,” said organiser Liz Farquhar. The pupils who set the highest targets swam first. As each girl completed her target laps, the next girl would start. Each entrant had to continue swimming, using any means to propel herself forward, regardless of how slowly she moved.
The girls had a five-minute break every hour to enjoy energy snacks. It was up to them whether or not they wanted to swim against time. The swim-a-thon was held to raise funds for starting blocks at the VG pool. “It appears that we have now reached our target to cover the cost of the starting blocks,” said organiser Liz Farquhar, saying the starting blocks had already been ordered.
Aimee Ferreira made a valiant effort to improve on her 2009 performance by swimming 450 laps (original target 200) in a time of 4 hrs 45 min. A Saturday commitment prevented her from continuing for as long as Marné, thus defeating her personal mission to try and out-swim her. Tayla Solomon and Natasha Nel persevered and swam 350 laps (3hrs 55min) and 300 laps (3hrs 27min) respectively.
Two girls decided that they still had a little extra energy available and turned their original targets into round figures. Monique Mclean went from 110 to 150 and Jessica Wentworth from 150 to 200. The girls who reached the target they set themselves were Nicole Wilson (110 laps) and Samantha Meaton (100).
“Newcomers to the pool – Deborah Mushwana, Zimkhita Sani, Alex Stevens, Micaela Goliath and Nicole Potgieter are to be commended for the effort that they put into their swim,” said Farquhar. “Marné has left her legacy, as well as a steep goal for the next girl who dares to take on the task.”
