Some of the country’s best young swimmers descended on Mbombela in the last week of school holidays for an intensive training camp and grand prix meet at Van Riebeeck Park.

Roughly 100 young swimmers between the ages of 13 and 18 participated in the Nelspruit Swimming Camp, which is a welcome part of the annual Swimming SA calendar. The event plays an important role in many of the swimmers’ preparations for the year ahead, with four days of training that culminate in two days of tough competition in the form of the Mpumalanga Grand Prix.

“We’re very happy with the Nelspruit Swimming Camp,” said Swimming SA High Performance manager, Dean Price. “We had just on 100 swimmers attending the camp. We managed to train really hard: two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. A lot of our top up-and-coming swimmers were part of this camp and we really had a great work ethic among them.”

Education and long-term athlete development formed key parts of the rigorous training programme. “We gave them a lot of education in terms of swimming training, swim preparation, and how to improve their skills in swimming. So I think it was very beneficial to everyone,” explained Price.

After training their hearts out during the week, the talented swimmers put everything they had learnt into practice, as a lot of personal bests and season bests were set during the grand prix.

There were a a number of Lowveld swimmers who took part, with the standout among them being Miela Banza who claimed three first places during the two days of competition.

Price emphasised the broader value of bringing young swimmers together in a high-performance environment. “These camps really make a huge difference. When the kids get in and train together they can’t back down; they become part of a group, and you just see the standard being raised, and that’s what we saw this week in Nelspruit,” he concluded.

> Photos: Blake Linder