Going just swimmingly
First Royal Alfred Marina Mile a great success
THE Royal St Andrews Hotel Easter Festival literally started with a splash last Friday afternoon, as 33 swimmers braved a chilly wind and 16°C water for the inaugural Royal Alfred Marina Mile open water swimming race.
The event attracted locals and visitors, including a couple from the US who were in town to visit family and decided on the spur of the moment to enter the race.
One of the organisers, Avril Beyleveld of the Kowie Striders, said she was pleased with the turnout as the weather might have dissuaded people.
Swimmers jumped into the water from the Halyards Hotel jetty to head for the starting line at the entrance of the first canal of the marina. Then they set off down the canal and back along the main channel of the Kowie River to the finish at the small boat harbour slipway.
Some entrants chose to swim in wetsuits, but were informed in the pre-race briefing that because of the extra buoyancy provided by a wetsuit, swimmers just in swimming costumes would be recognised for prize-winning placings ahead of any winner in a wetsuit.
The top-three swimmers home certainly did not need the extra buoyancy as they beat even their wetsuit-clad competition.
Siblings Slater Black, 15, and his 14-year-old sister, Page, were first and second respectively – Slater in a time of 23 minutes and 15 seconds, and Page in 25:06. They also topped the respective boys’ and girls’ 12-18 categories. People trying to photograph Slater as he passed their jetties could not even keep up with the speedy aqua lad.
In third spot was Joao Felizardo in 25:28. He was also winner of the men’s 19-29 category.
Just eight seconds behind him was Michael Ferreira in 25:36.
Full results:
Girls 12-18: (1) Page Black, (2) Jessica Booth, (3) Shaelin Walker. Boys 12-18: (1) Slater Black, (2) Jordan Denyer, (3) Stuart Grenfell. Women 19-29: (1) Jamie Lee Stone, (2) Rebecca Jobson, (3) Jayde Grimmer. Men 19-29: (1) Joao Felizardo, (2) Michael Ferreira, (3) Chris Peters. Women 30+: (1) Nicky van Nierop, (2) Val Orten, (3) Megan Walwyn. Men 30+: (1) Duncan Edwards, (2) Avron Vides, (3) Josh Kent.
There were cash prizes of R1 000, R500 and R250 for the top three in each category.
The NSRI was on hand to attend to any swimmers who had trouble, and also received a donation from the sponsors for their volunteer work.