Amakhosi celebrate their own pool masterclass
THE curtain was brought down on a fabulous local masters swimming season when the Amakhosi Masters swimming club held their end-of-season function at their clubhouse at the Joan Harrison Swimming Complex last week Thursday.
The clubs’ crowning moment came when they hosted the South African Masters national swimming competition, which brought over 500 Masters swimmers from around the country as well as a few from out of it to East London in March.
“This season has been one of the best for Amakhosi Masters ever,” said Amakhosi Masters president Kerry Skidmore.
“It was a most successful Masters event and I think everyone will agree it was a job well done.”
At the gala Amakhosi finished second after a fantastic battle with eventual overall winners Cape Town Masters over the competition, with a number of their swimmers impressing.
The main awards on the night went to two of Amakhosi’s youngest swimmers, with Blaine Kruger winning the Victor Ludorum award and Frauke Luehrs the Victrix Ludorum.
“We are blessed in the EC with some very talented swimmers. These two are no exception and fully deserved the award,” said Skidmore.
A host of other awards were also handed out on the night, while a number of impressive feats were mentioned by Skidmore.
“Apart from Terry Briceland being our eldest and two of our lady swimmers being pregnant, we had three swimmers qualifying for Dash for Cash, making them part of the top 10 fastest swimmers of the nationals.”
Amakhosi will now enjoy a welldeserved break over the off-season, before they start to prepare later this year for the 2017-18 season.
“We have the shortcourse championship coming up in October,” said Skidmore.
“We also hope that most of the new swimmers that swam this year will be interested in joining us in Pretoria for the nationals next year.”
Award winners: Victor Ludorum – Blain Kruger; Victrix Ludorum – Frauke Luehrs; Shortcourse King – Kerry Skidmore; Shortcourse Women – Tazlin Birch; Good Luck Award – Terry Briceland; Most Improved – Gary Reynders; 1 000m Challenge Male – Tyron Williams; 1 000m Challenge Female – Frauke Luehrs; Most successful first-timer – Blaine Kruger; Amakhosi Spirit – Kerry Skidmore; Dash for cash winners – Blaine Kruger, Nicholas Else, Sean Jevon; Wooden Spoon – Gavin and Reg Ramsey; Perseverance award – Therese Dixon.