Eastern Gauteng Championships 2015

The Aquatic Academy High Performance squad has paid off., (Earlier this year the swimmers had signed a contract with themselves to persevere and train harder). All the hard work was realised this last weekend, with “chunks” of time falling off previous Personal Bests. Few finals were swum, without an Academy swimmer.

Our final medal count was 9 gold, 15 silver and 23 bronze.

Most swimmers have qualified now for a regional Championship at the end of the season. There was huge excitement leading up to this event and there was a general overall atmosphere of success in the swimmers tent over the last four days.

Those that had put in the mileage got the results. Colette Fourie was our dynamo, finaling in 13 events and winning 3 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze medals, scoring 47 individual points. (unfortunately the final individual point tally was not inclusive of the final day as they are not yet available).

Savannah Mitchell finaled 8 times winning 2 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze medal adding 40 points to the score board. Caitlin Stott (11 years old) took 2 gold and 1 silver medal. In the 200 backstroke event she was only 6 seconds off a previous Academy swimmer’s (Claudia Kindervater) Provincial Championship record, winning the gold in 2: 52.33.

Keara Bothma’s improvement was hard earned and well worth the effort. She won 2 silver and 1 bronze medal and scored points in 8 finals. Ashleigh Stock swam 11 finals, scoring 22 points.

Kyle McKenzie added 35 points winning 1 silver and 4 bronze medals.

Our youngest swimmers, Mikayle Pon (8) won 2 silver medals and a bronze and Adrian Ristow (9 years) swam for 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal.

The Academy swimmers along with Debbie Mcgee’s proudly swam for ESP, which claimed third place in the Eastern Gauteng Championships that were held over 5 days at the Delville Pool, over the first weekend in December. Over 20 clubs took part.

Each and every squad member played a vital role in the success achieved. The teamwork was excellent.