AS LOCAL SWIMMERS SMASH THEIR PERSONAL BEST TIMES
AT LAST weekend’s Flamingo Aquatics swimming gala held at the Karen Muir swimming pool, two young swimmers, 13-yearold Janco Grobbelaar, and 14-year-old Dewet Gous broke their personal best lap times.
Their impressive performances may have been due to their hard work, fitness, or just plain luck, but it's also possible that they were inspired by the voice note that was played to all the swimmers that day. The note came from Karika Human, daughter of Karen Muir, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 60 from breast cancer.
In the voice note, Karika welcomed all the swimmers and supporters to the swimming gala, highlighting the pool's rich history and inspiration. She shared her mother's incredible achievements, which started when Muir was just 12 years old, becoming the youngest person in the history of all sports codes to break a world record.
According to Karika, her mother always believed that talent was important, but hard work was the key to success. After the voice was played, the swimmers released several pink balloons in remembrance of Muir and to raise cancer awareness in the country.
After the gala Janco and Dewet both spoke to the DFA about their record-breaking performances.
Janco shared that he was determined to improve his personal best time and felt proud of his effort when he broke his previous record. “When I dove into the pool, I pushed hard, knowing what I had to do to improve my time,” he said.
He improved his time in the 50-metre butterfly from 28.69 to 28.02 and thus setting a new Northern Cape Aquatics Sports Association record for his age group.
Dewet, on the other hand, wasn't expecting to break his previous time during the 1,500metre (30 lengths) freestyle race but was pleasantly surprised to finish with a time of 17.49.80, beating his old time of 18.07.93. Dewet currently holds the Northern Cape Aquatics Sports Association record for his age group.
Both Janco and Dewet have qualified for the nationals being held in Durban next month and are hoping to bring back medals from the competition.
The Chairman of the Flamingo Aquatics Academy, Nico
Harbron, expressed his pride in the swimmers’ achievements, stating that their hard work, focus, and determination paid off.
“We also had swimmers that came to Kimberley specifically because they had to swim a certain time to qualify for Junior Nationals coming up next month, and they did just that,” Harbron said.
He wished them all the best for the upcoming competition and congratulated all the swimmers on a successful gala.