Swimmer gets her gold
CARLSWALD - Carlswald's best upcoming swimmer achieved more than she set out to at the Central Gauteng Level 2 Championships at Ellis Park swimming pool.
Carissa van Rooyen took up the challenge of swimming 11 individual events and two team relay races to win 10 gold medals and one bronze.
These were 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle, 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, 50m and 100m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley event.
Van Rooyen’s relay team for the 4x50m freestyle relay and mixed 200m individual medley for the 11-12 age group won gold. Van Rooyen’s mother Liezel said, “Carissa’s third place in the 50m fly was an unexpected bonus. Carissa has not been able to swim the fly stroke since March last year due to a shoulder injury. She only recently started training the fly stroke again and this was her second attempt at racing fly at a gala event. We are very happy with the results.”
Liezel said breaking records was not part of her daughter’s objectives for the championships, but she did manage to break her own Central Gauteng record in the 50m freestyle, with a time of 29.37 seconds.
“She also threatened to break her South African and Central Gauteng record in the 50m backstroke and her Central Gauteng records in the 100m and 200m backstroke events after she swam very fast times of 31.98 seconds, 1.12.01 and 2.34.76 respectively,” said Liezel.
With this performance under her belt, Van Rooyen aims to chase records for the final gala of the 2013/2014 season, the South African Level 2 Regionals, which will take place at Ellis Park swimming pool from 20 to 23 March.
