Pinnacle College swimmers show their talent

Young swimmers of a team based at Pinnacle College Kyalami boasted some outstanding results in the South African Junior Nationals swimming competition recently.

University of Pretoria chose Pinnacle College Kyalami as a satellite club for training three years ago. Senior coaches of the university run swimming clubs at various locations and schools.

Coach Matthew Josephson said one of his highlights was when 15-year-old Callan Lötter qualified for the World Junior Open Water Championships.

Josephson said training during lockdown was extremely difficult as no facilities to swim were open, so everything was moved online. With swimmers missing a bulk of their off-season training time, he was unsure how everyone would perform.

“We didn’t have any pools to train in because everyone was at home. What we then did was have online training sessions via Zoom which was quite interesting on the dry-land to try keep the swimmers fit.

“Once the pools opened up again, we got everyone straight into fitness to give them that A-level. The season overall, however, was very tough because of Covid, but they performed very well overall from a Tuks [University of Pretoria] perspective. We won South African Junior Nationals and dominated at lower-ranking galas.”

Callan said she was excited after qualifying for the championships that was set to take place in the Seychelles in August but yet to be confirmed. She qualified in the Open Water Nationals competition in Jeffrey’s Bay from 19 to 21 March.

“I haven’t made a world champs side before but I’m feeling really excited. I feel proud and I can’t wait,” added the Chartwell resident.

Standout performances were:

• Haruki Fukunishi – two gold, two silver and one bronze medal

• Amber Fairon – two gold, two silver and three bronze medals

• Callan Lötter – five gold, three silver and one bronze medal.

• Matthew Prevett – two silver and two bronze medals.