Medals,SA times in gala

The Aquabear Gala was held over four days in Port Elizabeth this past weekend attracting clubs from all over South Africa.

The gala is usually held annual one but, due to the Newton Park pool difficulties, it was last held in 2013.

Grahamstown swimmers included Toni Rafferty, Sage Cawse, Tayla Kapp, Courtney Repinz, Catherine Williamson and Wendy-Mae Turner (DSG); John Maree, Davoren Swales and Matt Minnaar (St Andrew's College); Martin Wolmarans, Mark Ter Morshuizen, Jenna Foster and Jodi Hobson (St Andrew's prep); Emma Podesta (Victoria Primary School). Gregory Ter Blanche (Graeme College).

All the swimmers did extremely well against tough competition with the 12 and unders swimming in timed finals and the 13 and over swimming in heats to then qualify for finals (top 8).

Swimmers that medalled were John Maree, Toni Rafferty, Courtney Repinz, Emma Podesta and Catherine Williams in the 200 medley relay.

John Maree swam a South Africa qualifying time in the 50m backstroke (28.06 seconds), winning a bronze medal. In the 100m backstroke he also swam a South Africa youth time of 1.03.17 with a fifth placing.

Toni Rafferty managed to improve all her times in each event and swam two South African youth and level 3 times in the 100m freestryle winning gold in a time of 1.01.74.

She also won bronze in the 100m butterfly with a time of 1.09.89, silver in the 50m freestyle in 28.02 and gold in 50m butterfly in 30.58.

Courtney Repinz, who swam in a number of events, won gold in the 100m backstroke in 1.16.10, just missing out on a level 3 qualification time.

Courtney also won two silvers for 50m backstroke in 35.58 and 200m backstroke as well as bronze for the 100m butterfly in 1.21.74.

In addition, she won gold, silver and bronze medals in the various relays events.

Emma Podesta won gold in the 50m backstroke in 35.33, bronze in the 50m freestyle in 30.97 and a silver and a gold for relays.

Catherine Williamson was part of a medley relay (where she swam the breaststroke leg) and the team went on to win gold and set a new Eastern Province record in the process.

Two up and comming swimmers who also made finals were Sage Cawse and Davoren Swales.

Both are breaststroke swimmers and narrowly missed out on medals, Davoren finished 4th in the 50m breaststroke and Sage finished 6th in the 100m breaststroke.

sport@grocotts.co.za