Seven records were broken at the 2026 Ehlanzeni Interhigh Gala on the afternoon and evening of Wednesday, February 18. The meet was hosted by Komatipoort Akademie at Van Riebeeck Park in Mbombela.

The first record of the gala was set in the boys 15 and under 100m freestyle. Aiden Els of Curro Nelspruit froze the stopwatch on 58.15sec, taking 1.78sec off Dawid de Villiers’ 2025 record.

In the girls 16 and over 100m freestyle, Anja Buitendach of Hoërskool Nelspruit (NHS) shaved 18/100ths of a second off her own 2025 record, clocking 01:03.19.

Miela Banza of Penryn College shattered the girls 17, 50m breaststroke record of 36.01sec set by Kayla Shefferman in 2019. Miela won gold in 34.88sec. Miela continued with her record-annihilating mission, clocking 01:16.06 in the 100m breaststroke, eclipsing Hannah Drewes’ 2019 time of 01:19.53.

Brandon Macaulay of Rob Ferreira won gold in the boys 16 and over 100m breaststroke in a record time of 01:12.36, with Jaco Rademeyer’s 2023 record standing at 01:13.67.

The Hoërskool Nelspruit mixed 19 and under 200m medley relay team of Ciska Ferreira, Radley Henning, Karmen van Rensburg, and Samuel Tryhou set a new record of 02:10.73.

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Curro’s Jaime Maritz took just 2/100ths of a second off Kayla’s 2019 record in the girls 17, 50m butterfly, setting a new benchmark of 31.57sec.

Aiden was the U15 victor ludorum, and honoured as best individual performance by a boy for his 50 free race – 625 Hy-Tek points.

Miela’s performance in the 50m breaststroke earned her 776 Hy-Tek points and the best performance by a senior girl trophy. For her combined performances on the day, she was the U17 victrix ludorum.

The U16 victor ludorum was Brandon. He shared the best individual performance by a senior boy, for his 50m breaststroke, with Rory Thomson (50m freestyle – 26.13sec) of Uplands College. Both scored 649 Hy-Tek points.

The girls 14 and under 50m backstroke produced the most-exciting finish of the interhigh with 4/100ths of a second separating Chiniq Breedt of NHS and Cara Mills of Uplands. Chiniq took the gold medal in 36.26sec, and Cara the silver in 36.30sec.

Other trophy winners:
• U14 victor ludorum: Andrew Bruyns (NHS)
• U14 victrix ludorum: Mignon Swart (Curro)
• U15 victrix ludorum : Zoë Janse van Vuuren (NHS)
• U16 victrix ludorum: Amoré Oosthuizen (NHS)
• U18 victor ludorum: Henning Radley (NHS)
• U18 victrix ludorum: Liza Victor (Uplands)
• Best individual performance by a junior girl: Kendra McNamara (Uplands) – 50m breaststroke; 437 Hy-Tek points.
Final school placings
• Hoërskool Nelspruit – 1 101 points
• Uplands – 780
• Rob Ferreira – 572
• Curro – 426
• Penryn – 308
• Komatipoort Akademie – 80.