The best swimmers from around the province descended on Penryn on October 26 for the annual Mpumalanga Top Schools Swimming Gala.

The schools from the Onderberg that competed faired well. The gala, which was split into junior and senior sections, featured a total of 17 teams from around the province – 16 schools plus the Uniswim Swimming Club. This led to hundreds of swimmers taking to the pool throughout the competition.

The junior section was held in the morning. The younglings luckily missed the worst of the day’s weather, while the senior section swam in the tougher of the day’s conditions as it began to rain again in the afternoon.

Komatipoort Akademie’s Ethan Vermaak won the junior boys’ best single performance by earning 535 points for his time of 22.08 seconds in the boys eight-years-old 25m backstroke.

Komatipoort Akademie was also the best performing Onderberg school on the day, finishing third in the boys’ section across both juniors and seniors. They then finished fifth overall. Laerskool Malelane was sixth overall, while Riverview Preparatory School managed to finish eighth overall.