aQuellé Midmar Mile crowns new winners
Scores of swimmers converged on Midmar Dam on Sunday for the elite men’s and women’s races which saw two new faces on the podium.
THE aQuellé Midmar Mile saw new champs being crowned in both the elite men’s and women’s races as New Zealander Louis Clark and South African swimmer Catherine van Rensburg took top honours at the weekend.
Competing in her first ever Midmar Mile, Van Rensburg (19:49) led from the start, pulling away from the pack along with teammate and lane-mate at TUKS, Callan Lotter, who placed second.
There was a tie for third with 2022 champion Stephanie Houtman and New Zealand swimmer Ruby Heath crossing the finish in the same time of 20:32, leaving officials unable to separate them even after reviewing
video footage.
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“This is my first Midmar race so I’m so happy with it,” said Van Rensburg afterwards. “The conditions were a little bit choppy but I just pushed through. Callan and I are best friends so we swim together the whole time and we just tried to push each other to see how far we could get.”
In the elite men’s race, Louis Clark, a world champion in lifesaving, put his ocean swimming skills to good use in the rough conditions and finished in a time of 19:07.
South Africa’s Henré Louw was runner-up after finishing just two seconds back, with Matthew Caldwell in third place.
“I got to about the last gate [1200m] and thought I’m feeling pretty good, I think it’s time to go so I put the foot down and tried to leave everybody and it worked and I held on for dear life at the end so it was good,” said a
thrilled Clark afterwards.
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Earlier in the day, two-time Olympic gold medallist and 2023 Midmar champion, Sharon van Rouwendaal. decided to swim in the 31-40 age category rather than in the main race, winning easily in a time of 20:15
And there were several milestones celebrated as Gary Albertyn completed his 200th aQuellé Midmar Mile, also winning the men’s 51-60 age category in what was his 20th mile of the weekend in the process.
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