MIDMAR: AUSSIE PAIR CAME, SAW, CONQUERED
HIS clean sweep last weekend in the two main events of the aQuelle Midmar Mile by the two Australian open water champion swimmers, Kareena Lee and Nick Sloman, might well have moved their coach, John ‘JR’ Rogers, to sum up their respective races with a quote from Julius Caesar back in the days of the Romans: “Veni, Vidi, Vici,” which loosely translated from the Latin is: “We came; We saw; We conquered.”
When I interviewed ‘JR’ ahead of the race the 81-year-old from Noosa on the Australian Sunshine Coast was quietly confident that his two young open water swimming stars would not only win their respective races, but win them by the proverbial mile.
“We came here to South Africa to make a speck on the map,” he said. “Ours is quite a unique team. We trained hard every day since we arrived to prepare for our next commitment, a qualifier in Doha, Qatar for the FINA World Open Water Championships to be held in South Korea in July.”
The 25-year old Lee, a convert to open water, has blossomed under Rogers’ coaching and just as he forecast, she wasted no time establishing an unassailable lead in the almost perfect prevailing conditions, expanding the gap with every stroke to finish in a fast 18min, 20sec – albeit 45 seconds slower than the 2015 time (17:35, the current record) posted by British Olympian star and six times previous winner, Keri-Anne Payne.
Local girls Michelle Weber, 2016 winner, and Samantha Randle were second and third in 19:26 and 19:29 respectively.
Sloman, 21, and also from Noosa, set another blistering pace right from the start in the water and within a few minutes had left the chasing pack of over a hopeful dozen swimmers trailing in his wake as he powered his way past the three “hot spots” at 400m, 800m and 1200m to complete the 1600m course in 17min 01sec, an agonising one hundredth of a second outside the course record of 17:00 set in 2016 by South African 5km and 10km champion, Chad Ho.
Sloman’s time was almost halfa-minute faster than second-placed Michael McGlynn’s 17:28 and thirdplaced Daniel Marais’s 17:29 while Ashley Hogg of Manchester, second in last year’s Midmar Mile, had to settle for fifth place in 17:34 and Ho, seven-times previous winner of the event, was surely demoralised with his seventh place in 17:42.
What was interesting was the fact that seven swimmers finished within a minute of McGlynn with Bailey Hairsine, another Mancunian, in ninth place with 18:27.
In the process both Sloman and Lee each collected for themselves R1000 for being first at the first “Hot Spot” at 400m, R2000 for the second at 800m, and R3000 for the third at 1200m plus R10000, the winner’s purse, for a total of R16000 at a rate of almost R1000 per minute!
Lee finished strongly in 18:20,54 ahead of runner-up, Michelle Weber with Samantha Randle third.
Altogether over 13000 swimmers from around the country and abroad completed the mile swim that lived up to its name of being “the biggest open water swimming event in the world”. MIDMAR MILE 2019 RESULTS (RSA unless stated)
Girls, Women 14 to 30 years
1 Kareena Lee (Aus) 18min 20 sec, 2 Michelle Weber 19:26, 3 Samantha Randle 19:29, 4 Robyn Kinghorn 129:33, 5 Kristin Bellingan 19:34, 6 Marne Frylinck 19:34, 7 Carli Antonopoulos 19:36, 8 Rebecca Meder 19:37, 9 Abigail Meder 19:37, 10 Victoria Earle 19:45. (Record: 17:35 – established by Keri-Anne Payne in 2015)
Boys, Men 14 to 30 years
1 Nick Sloman (AUS) 17:01, 2 Michael McGlynn 17:28, 3 Daniel Marais 17:29, 4 Chad Michau 17:33, 5 Ashley Hogg (GBR) 17:34, 6 Christopher McGlynn 17:40, 7 Chad Ho 17:42, 8 Dante Nortje 18:23, 9 Bailey Hairsine (GBR) 18:27, 10 Luka Holtzhausen 18:39. (Record: (17:00 – Chad Ho in 2016)
Females, 13 years and under: 1 Ruby Dixon 22:23, 2 Emma Carmody 22:33, 3 Tayla Haslam 22:53
14 to 30 years: 1 Samantha Randle 21:36, 2 Kaitlyn Albertyn 23:02, 3 Sarah Ross 23:46
31 to 40 years: 1 Lexi Kelly 21:28, 2 Samantha Whelpton 23:06, 3 Kathryn Niven 23:16
41 to 50 years: 1 Megan Albertyn 22:09, 2 Barbara Bowley 23:44, 3 Dominique Donner 23:50
51 to 60 years: 1 Annemarie Dressler 24:39, 2 Karen Kennedy 24:42, 3 Ingrid Trusler 24:44
61 to 70 years: 1 Rita Townsend 25:10, 2 Heather Campbell 25:47, 3 Fiona Clark 28:29
71 to 80 years: 1 Bev Shuttleworth 32:27, 2 Jane Meaker 32:47, 3 Beth Lordan 36:14
81 years and over: 1 Ann Hanson 43:58 (Age 81)
Males, 13 years and under: 1 Ross Paterson 19:47, 2 Kian Craig Keylock 20:47, 3 Tristan Moore 22:10
14 to 30 years: 1 Reino von Wielligh 20:58, 2 Matthew Randle 20:59, 3 Connor Albertyn 21:59
31 to 40 years: 1 Terence Parkin 20:45, 2 Hayward Paul Bees 20:51, 3 Michael Phillips 21:11
41 to 50 years: 1 Terry Heller 20:35, 2 Gary Albertyn 21:51, 3 Tony Shuttleworth 22:30
51 to 60 years: 1 Julian Taylor 21:57, 2 John Glover 24:24, 3 Ernest Davis 24:28
61 to 70 years: 1 Ted Townsend 23:52, 2 Russell Behrens 26:17, 3 Steve Evans 27:11
71 to 80 years: 1 Derek Fyfe 30:49, 2 Derek Maltby 30:57, 3 Jimmy Hughes 31:46
81 years and over: 1 Mike Arbuthnot 1:09:22 (Age 86), 2 David Schulze 1:13:40, 3 Tommy Ballantyne 1:33:08 (Age 85) 1:33:08 AN HOUR’S boat trip from the Tuilagi residence, on the Samoan island of Upolu, lives a 56-year-old widow in the village of Alafua.
Her small wooden hut, at the end of a dirt track, is surrounded by lush banana plantations and flowering breadfruit trees.
It is almost 16,000 kilometres away from Leicester, but this is where Manu Tuilagi ended up in his quest to overcome his demons.
The England centre’s career was almost derailed by six years of injury problems and when modern medicine failed to work, he returned home to his roots in the Pacific.
At the end of the dirt track, he met the 56-year-old “Fofo Samoa” – known in the western world as a witchdoctor – and went in search of evil spirits.
“My gift is to see spirits,” the spirit healer says, rolling her ‘r’s, characteristic of her half Samoan and half Fijian accent. “This is what I have done since I was 14.”
It was Tuilagi’s mother Aliitasi who ordered him to visit the Fofo Samoa in 2017.
Tuilagi is one of seven brothers. The eldest, Olotuli, a “Fa’afafine” or cross-dresser who has lived his life as a woman and goes by the name Julie, had previously visited for treatment.
It is common practice in Samoa, founded heavily on religious beliefs, with healing powers believed to be passed down through generations.
“I search for people’s Ma’i (sickness) and find out if it is caused by the spirits,” says the Fofo Samoa, who did not want her real name to be revealed. “When I was young I started to see a lot of people, whitefaced people and frozen people.
“Then when I went to school and I felt things. I started to bleed in my face, my nose and my mouth. I was taken to the hospital but my granddad, who was a psychic and a doctor, explained the story behind the spirits. That’s when I got my gift.”
Tuilagi spent four days in the Fofo Samoa’s company. Each morning he would sail between the islands with his brother Alesana, spending two hours being treated with Fijian oils. He would wrap himself in a towel and Alesana would wait patiently in the spare room.
“I saw that three Tamaitai (lady spirits) were following Manu,” she says. “Two Samoan ladies and a Hawaiian girl. The Hawaiian girl was the worst. These ladies were really attracted to him – they like goodlooking, talented people – and they kept following him.
“These women told me Manu belongs to them. I said, ‘No, no, God created him and he’s got his own parents to look after him’. They told me it’s none of my business and called me a lot of words. They keep saying that he’s their husband. I said, ‘God has a plan for this man. God has empowered me with his power to remove you from him’.
“I massaged his whole body with oils made from coconut, frangipani, sandalwood, rose. He started to feel different, light and young. I cast the women away and I told Manu he will play rugby again. Now he is protected. When he is playing, I put out a protection from the spirits.”
On the search for Tuilagi’s Fofo Samoa, we also discovered a different healer who treated the centre in 2011. In the village of Nu’u, 10km from the capital, Tuilagi met Tafiaiga Faotu’i to cure knee pain during the early years of his career.
“I mixed coconut oil with herbs and rubbed it on to the affected area,” says Tafiaiga. “I mix the two and see what colour it turns into. Once the colour settles I know how to treat the patient. I massaged the area for a few minutes and let the ointment soak through the skin. On the fourth visit, he was fixed.”
Before his visit, Tuilagi consulted Leicester Tigers physio Ed Hollis. Busy training commitments in England mean he can only see his Samoan healers during the off season, although they remain in contact through Facebook.
Now the benefits are starting to pay off, with Tuilagi starring in England’s victory over Ireland in his comeback Test in their Six Nations opener.
It has been a long and dark process for Tuilagi, with questions asked whether he would ever run out at Twickenham again. He has started just three Tests in six years and, for three of those years, he lived with fellow Samoan Logovi’i Mulipola in Thorpe Astley, a suburb of Leicester. He would often go in search of home comforts.
“He was down, very down,” says Mulipola. “I think the secret to his recovery was back in Samoa. The people around him and his family.
“We tried to lift his spirits; play guitar, sing songs, play snooker, have a few beers. He loves the Guinness. We’d play The A Team by Ed Sheeran, and Bob Marley, while eating lamb, taro, chicken soup, chop suey. Chop suey is Manu’s special. Sometimes we’d go out in Leicester until 3am.
“There was only one time, when we were drinking, that he told me he was getting tired of everything. I just said to him, ‘listen, don’t give up, man, keep going and you will play for England again’. That’s why, last week, I was so proud to see him playing against Ireland.”
These days, Tuilagi has moved out of the lads’ pad in Thorpe Astley. He had his first child, Leilani Lea’auta, with his fiancée Chantelle last year and they have settled down in a village, next door to teammate Telusa Veainu.
“We drive to training together and, particularly when Manu was injured, he’d talk about faith being important,” says Veainu.
“For every island kid, the number one thing is faith. Next there’s family, then rugby, then food. He’s Catholic and every Sunday he goes to church.
He’ll go in his traditional Samoan outfit; sarong, tropical shirt and a Samoan necklace – even if it’s minus four degrees!”
Last weekend against France, Tuilagi was back to make his first international start at Twickenham since 2013. Before kick-off, he stopped in the dressing room to say a prayer, as he does before every match.
His centre partnership with Henry Slade already seems to be striking the perfect balance. Back in Alafua, they might go so far to say it is a match made in heaven. |