Sloman and Earle crowned Midmar Mile champs
Joy for Nick Sloman and Tory Earle as they secure their Midmar Mile titles.
AUSTRALIA’S Nick Sloman added a second aQuellé Midmar Mile title to his list of accolades on Sunday as thousands of swimmers took on the race at the famous dam.
There was also joy for Kloof swimmer Tory Earle as she claimed her first women’s title at the Midmar Mile.
Prior to the race, all eyes were on Sloman who was on a mission to break Chad Ho’s 2016 mark of 17 minutes flat, but rough conditions on the day meant that would not be possible.
He nevertheless produced a dominant performance on the day, storming to the front early on and opening up a massive gap to reach the finish in 18 minutes 29 seconds – almost a full minute and a half ahead of his nearest challenger.
Connor Albertyn was second in a time of 00:19:58 with fellow Pretoria swimmer Sven van der Linde third in 00:20:01.
“I found the first 1 200m really challenging. I couldn’t quite get the rhythm that I needed, hitting that headwind and really sort of breaking my stroke up a bit,” said Sloman after the race. “I was sitting lower in the water, as well, so I was basically swimming uphill … but I’m happy with how I swam it and managed to get the win, so that’s always good,” added the 26-year-old, who, just before heading to South Africa, claimed a gold medal with his Australian teammates in the mixed 4 x 1 500m open water event at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha.
Meanwhile, the women’s race also saw Earle emerging as an early leader as she powered to the win with Carli Antonopoulos finishing second and two-time Midmar champion Michelle Weber coming in third.
“It’s really cool actually. I’ve been doing Midmar for a lot of years now, so it’s really cool to finally win it. My plan with Midmar is always put your head down and sprint. I just wanted to get clear of the bunch at the beginning and just go out fast. It’s usually better to sprint and get away from the pack early, and then you can sort of catch your breath in the middle and then sprint at the end,” she said.
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