Swimmers perform in New Caledonia
The 2013 para-athletes with an intellectual disability (Inas) World Swimming Championships took place in New Caledonia in the South Pacific, under the auspices of the French national member organisation FFSA.
Three swimmers of Nelspruit, Raymond de Freitas, Anné Swart en Cristelle Kriel, participated in Noumea from August 18 to 24. They did extremely well an achieved excellent results.
Inas is reserved for people with an IQ inferior to 80 and who feature on the Inas Master List. Close to 150 competitors from around the world travelled to New Caledonia to take part in the championships at the Guy-Verlaguet Regional Aquatic Centre in Dumbea. On August 24, a 1,5km open-sea event was held on Anse Vata. More than 40 volunteers, accompanied by five translators, assisted the organising committee in hosting these world champions.
The results were as follow:
• Anné Swarts (her first
international competition)
50m freestyle – 32,89
200m backstroke – 3:40.68
to 3:28.08 (improvement with 12.60 seconds)
200m freestyle – 2:58.75
50m breaststroke – 45,56
100m freestyle – 1:15.58
• Cristelle Kriel set up a new South African and Africa record and won a bronze in the 200m backstroke. She also received a bronze in the 400m free-style in a time of 5:44:46.
50m freestyle -32,71
200m freestyle – 2:44.05
200m medley -3:07.89
100m backstroke – 1:26.33
50m backstroke – 41.72
100m free-style – 1:14.04
• Raymond de Freitas won a bronze in the open-water item 400m freestyle –
4:49.38 100m breaststroke – 1:29.23.
The ladies relay team secured five medals (two silver and three bronze) in total whereas the men came home with three medals (two silver and one bronze).
“They made many new friends and learned a lot on the tour. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to making their dream a reality namely the department of sport, Fins Swemklub, Mpumalanga Copiers, Absa Bank, all the anonymous sponsors and every parent who helped,” said Petro Swart.
