Water polo side close in on world championship spot
THIS year’s eighth annual Spar KZN Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge was well and truly launched last week with Ferrum Hoërskool once again winning the opening tournament for the KZN Northern regional title at Glencoe.
The action continues this weekend with the Pietermaritzburg Central regional today hosted by St John’s DSG at Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School, and the PMB Northern regional tomorrow hosted by St Anne’s College.
The tournament takes the form of a round robin with 21 games being played. The top two teams in each of the two pools go to the semi-finals and the winners meet in the final to determine the Durban Central champions. TWO Hungarian swimmers dominated the open men’s 5km and 10km events at last weekend’s SA National Open Water Swimming Championships in Jeffrey’s Bay.
Daniel Szekelyi came away with two gold medals and his compatriot Peter Galicz two silvers in the absence of SA open water champion Chad Ho, who called off for personal reasons.
Szekelyi, 23, won the men’s 10km in 1hr 54min 29.10 secs to Galicz’s 1:55:52.20, with KZN’s Dante Nortje third in 1:56:18.00.
Szekelyi repeated his success in the 5km race (56:11.70); Galicz was second (57:01.00) and Namibia’s Phillip Seidler third (57:19.43).
Western Cape’s Ana Soares da Cunha, 26, scored a notable double in the women’s events beating KZN’s Michelle Weber, 22, twice. Germany’s Sarah Boslett (25) came third twice.
Da Cunha was just over a minute faster than Weber in the 10km event, with a time of 1:56:17.10 to Weber’s 1:57.20.50. Boslett secured the bronze medal with 1:56:17.10.
It was the same order in the 5km race(1:00:14.37, 1:00:16.34 and 1:00:51.53).
The nationals doubled as the official qualifier for the 4th Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships in Israel from September 7 to 9. GAVIN Smith gave a sizzling performance offshore Durban last week, helming his yacht Zing to line honours in all three monohull races in the first round of the Jonsey Sprints event hosted by Point Yacht Club.
The first race, the longest on the day, saw Smith and crew off to a brilliant start, setting a blistering pace to the top mark only to lose some time on the rounding when the team faltered somewhat hoisting the kite for the downwind leg. Fortunately this did not prove costly and Zing finished first by two minutes from secondplaced PYC Challenger, with Nhlanhla Phakathi at the helm sailing magnificently.
Race two, shortened to one lap, saw latecomer Bill Ellens on his trimaran, Magic Dragon, first round the buoy with Zing right behind him.
But Ellens misunderstood the shortened course flag and had to tack back to head for the finish line, crossing the line only 27 seconds behind Smith. Phakathi was third, 13 seconds adrift of the trimaran.
Magic Dragon edged to the front after a sluggish start in the third and final race and remained boldly ahead of the chasing pack. Ellens completed the full two laps in 48min 26sec, eight minutes ahead of the first monohull, Zing, with
Refeloa Zililo and team on iThemba in third place, 22 seconds behind Zing.
There were three L26s in the one design class training for the Lipton Cup in Durban later in the year, Phakathi twice taking the honours in the first two races and Zililo winning the final race. AFTER a slow start, the South African U18 water polo team proved way too strong for their Zimbabwean neighbours for the second time in 24 hours in the Fina African Qualifying Tournament at King’s Park Pool yesterday and virtually secured their spot at the world championships.
After beating the Zimbabweans 13-6 on Thursday, the hosts looked to be struggling in the opening chukka before they picked up the pace and waltzed to an emphatic 16-2 win. The victory should be enough to secure second spot in the tournament and the second African spot at the championships in Hungary later this year.
The potent Egyptian side are unbeaten so far and look likely to end as the top African team and secure the better seeding in Hungary. South Africa just need one more win, or a Zimbabwean loss, to wrap up the second spot, while they will need to beat Egypt twice in two days to unseat the North Africans from claiming the African title.
In the two-team women’s qualification tournament, South Africa were far too strong for Zimbabwe and their 20-7 victory on Thursday means the local side just need one more win from their next two matches against the same opponents to secure their spot at the Women’s Youth World Championships in Serbia in September.
The tournament, which ends tomorrow, is a three-inone event with the African Qualifying Tournament being held in conjunction with the Cana (African Aquatics Federation) Zone IV Youth Championships and Cana Friendly tournament.
In the two-day men’s triangular Zone IV event, which started yesterday, the South African U17 side secured two wins to ensure they would win that event. The slick outfit beat their U16 compatriots 7-1 in the morning and then destroyed the Zimbabwe U18B side 23-2 in the afternoon. The Zimbabweans and SA U16 side will play off for second and third today.
The round-robin section of the quadrangular women’s Zone IV tournament ends today with three matches before the playoffs and finals tomorrow.