Girls swim their way to three more local records

ON FRIDAY, during the third day of swimming at the 2018 South African National Junior Championships, it was the girls who were in a record-breaking mood at Kings Park Swimming Pool.

Three more South African age group records were broken by Veronique Rossouw and Aimee Canny to bring the total of records set at the championships to five.

On Thursday Ruan Breytenbach and Ethan du Preez set records in the 20m butterfly.

Veronique Rossouw, 13, of Tuks swimming club, set two records. First she swam 58.54 in the 100m freestyle to take two hundredths off the time set by Olivia Nel in 2016, and later she did 28.50 in the 50m butterfly to shave 0.17 off Kirsten de Goede’s record of 2017.

Knysna’s best became South Africa’s best when Aimee Canny, 14, of Knysna Dragons swim club, won the 100m freestyle in 57.31. It went well under the 2013 record of 58.02 set by Erin Gallagher.

The other 100m freestyle winners were Marine Nortje in the 17-18 age group in 58.65; Ally Chislett, 16, in 58.88; Rebecca Meder, 15, in 57.80; and Amy Muller, 12, who did 1:03.03.

The men’s 100m freestyles produced some close races and fine times. The 17-18 age group was won by Calvin Coetzee in 52.08, ahead of Luke Cillie in 52.41 and Jandre Moll in 52.47.

The 16-year old boys weren’t far behind. Matthew Bosch was triumphant with a fast finish in 52.20, with Gawie Nortje on 52.32 and James Freeman on 52.58 in second and third places.

Ethan Spieker, 15, took the title in 53.06 with Chad Mayer taking silver in 53.52 and Kobus Groenewald walking away with the bronze in 53.67.

The other winners were Luca Holtzhausen, 14, in 54.15; Ryan Zazas, 13, in 56.89; and Elijah

1:00.42.

In the 50m butterfly events the winners were Riccardo di Domenico, 18, in 25.44; Henju Duvenhage, 16, in 25.43; Ethan Spieker, 15, in 26.30; Matthew Sates, 14, in 25.89; Pieter Coetze, 13, in 27.49; and Liam Coetzee, 12, in 28.72.

The girls winners were Jana Coetze, 17, in 28.53; Alice van der Merwe, 16, in 29.17; Olivia Nel, 15, in 28.49; Lara van Niekerk, 28.95; and Ruby Dixon, 12, in 30.74.

The 400m individual medley’s also took place in two age groups.

The mens 15-18 event was won by Ruan Breytenbach in 4:30.20, with Henju Duvenhage Dredge, 12, in second in 4:35.15 and Dante Nortje third in 4:38.80.

Matthew Randle was victorious in the 12-14 event in 4:40.19, with Ethan du Preez second in 4:45.20, and Zander Landman third in 4:45.75.

The women’s event was won by Rebacca Meder in 4:53.55, with Emma Wallis in second on 5:06.53 and Carli Antonopoulos third in 5:07.40.

Sune Liebenberg won the 12-14 event in 5:07.82, with Jana Botha and Trinity Hearne in second and third places.

The event concludes today with finals scheduled for 3pm. Today’s events are 200m breaststroke, 100m butterfly and 200m backstroke.