IT has been a remarkable year of swimming achievements for Glen Hills resident Riley Hemphill.

Already this year he has taken part in the SA National Junior Age Group Championship (one gold and one silver), the SA Schools Championship (two golds and a silver) and two SA Short Course Grand Prix invitational events in Pietermaritzburg (two silvers and a bronze) and Cape Town (two silvers and a bronze) respectively.

It was in the latter event at the end of last month that the Northwood School Grade 11 learner secured qualification for the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

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In Cape Town he placed second in the 200m breaststroke event in a time of 2:15.98. Riley also placed second in the 100m breaststroke event in 1:03.87. Incredibly the 17-year-old’s 200m Breaststroke time is now the fastest on the African continent by an U18 swimmer.

He will represent Aqua Athlete SA in the first two legs of the international World Cup series.

“This is my first world-class event ever with high-level swimmers and I know how tough it’s going to be. I’m not going there to win but rather for the experience. For me every event is a new learning curve. In KZN, my fellow competitors Cole Martin and Ethan Hambloch help push me to new levels and that motivates me to beat personal bests. It’s still hard to believe I’ve made the team competing in Asia. I wasn’t close to qualifying at the beginning of the year but I’ve improved with each event,” he said.

Riley will compete in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events at the World Cup. He trains six times a week and is a member of Aqua Athlete where he is coached by his mother, Tracey.

“My mother has been alongside me since I started swimming competitively three years ago. She’s definitely helped me improve,” he said. “Grade Eight was the year that my mentality changed because I won all three breaststroke events (Level 3) and then the next year I made junior nationals, which is the highest level for junior swimmers.”

His goals are to represent SA at the Commonwealth Games and Olympics.

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