Local is lekker at this year’s aQuellé Midmar Mile

DURBAN open water champions, Robyn Kinghorn and Michael McGlynn, were the undisputed winners of the women’s and men’s races last Sunday at the 47th edition of the aQuellé Midmar Mile held at the Midmar Dam near Howick. It has been four years since the gold medals were both presented to local swimmers. International swimmers having won the last four races. Kareena Lee and Nicholas Sloman (Australia) winning last year; Ashley Twichell (USA) and Kiril Abrosimov (USSR) in 2018; Twichell again in 2017 along with Clifton School’s Matthew Meyer who swam for South Africa in the 1500m freestyle at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but did not make the final; and finally, Michelle Weber and Chad Ho who were both members of the South African open water swimming team in Rio. Weber and Ho were among this year’s pre-race Midmar Mile favourites and had taken time off from their rigid training programmes looking ahead to this year’s 32nd Olympiad to be held in Tokyo, Japan in July-August.

But as it turned out they were both well beaten by the 20-year-olds Kinghorn and McGlynn, respectively last Sunday at

Midmar in difficult and choppy conditions, each taking their race by the scruff of the neck and leading from start to finish. Kinghorn taking the women’s title in 21 minutes 16 seconds and McGlynn finishing in 18 minutes and 26 seconds. The fastest women’s crossing is the 17:35 record time set in 2015 by British Olympian star and six times previous women’s winner, KeriAnne Payne and the men’s record was set by Ho in 2016 and still stands at 17:01, one hundredth of a second faster than McGlynn’s time last Sunday. Samantha Randle was second to Kinghorn, 11 seconds later in 21:27, Victoria Earle third in 21:30 and Weber fourth in the same time. Randle was second to Kinghorn, 11 seconds later in 21:27, Victoria Earle third in 21:30 and Weber fourth in the same time. Kinghorn said at the post race interview that she was extremely happy with her rafce.

“Everyone swam their hearts out, that I know,” she said.

“The chop was extremely bad and I got quite a few waves right in my face (so that I) didn’t really know where I was going, but I just put my head down and went for it.” Kinghorn is a swimmer who competes internationally for South Africa. Her last major event was at the World Open

Water Aquatic Championships held at Gwangju, South Korea last July when she, along with Weber, Ho and Danie Marais, managed 15th place overall for the 5km team race with an aggregate time of 56:52.9, the German team winning in 53:58.7.

Getting back to the senior men’s Midmar Mile race last weekend, McGlynn had an outstanding race, carving out a channel for himself out in front soon after the mass start.

The Durban swimmer’s only thought must have been that having finished second in last year’s race, the Durban swimmer was determined he would finish first this time around, which was exactly as it turned out, crossing the timing pads 34 seconds ahead of Ho who was second in 19:02, almost exactly two minutes slower than his own record time which is an indication of just how much the rough conditions played on individual performances.

Henré Louw, who only turned 18 on the 10th of this month, was third in 19:07. Asked whether he chose a particular line to guide him across the dam, McGlynn said he just decided to go with what he felt was right. “It changes every year”, he said. “I just put my head down and went for it!”