Personal bests for Ladysmith swimmers at Open Water Swim

The SA National Open Water Swim 2017 was held at Marine Martinique in Jeffrey’s Bay on March 4 and 5.

This venue is different from other open water venues that our swimmers are used to.

It is salt water and surrounded with beautiful houses.

On Saturday, March 4, it was the 10km and 3km events.

None of our swimmers did the 10km event, which was won by Chad Ho.

Ladysmith Marlins swimmers who qualified for the 3km event and represented KZN Aquatics were: JJ van der Hoogen (seventh time), Dian Yssel (fifth time), Pieter Jacobs (first time), Kyle van Vuuren (first time) and Anke Fourie (first time).

Ladysmith Marlins Swimming Club is very proud of these five swimmers who swam their personal best times: JJ van der Hoogen – 36:26.11 (6 min) third age group 19-30; Dian Yssel – 40:16.10 (2 min) 17th age group 16-18; Kyle van Vuuren – 40:44.43 (7 min) 24th age group 14-15; Anke Fourie – 42:00.82 (6 min) 20th age group 14-15; Pieter Jacobs – 42:31.16 (3 min) 23rd age group 16-18.

For the third year, JJ won a medal in his age group, 19-30 years, this time a bronze medal! Well done, JJ, for keeping the Ladysmith Marlins and KZNA names high!

On Sunday, March 5, it was the 5km event. JJ qualified for this event and came eighth in his age group, 19-30, with a time of 1:03:26.97 (7 min faster). This event was won by Danie Marais, with Chad Ho second.

We would like to thank KZNA for getting sponsors from Speedo. Each swimmer received a Speedo costume and Speedo shirt.

Thanks to the club for contributing towards the cost for each swimmer – Jeffrey’s Bay is far to travel. Parents, thank you for accompanying your child and giving him / her the opportunity to participate at Nationals.

To the ones who stayed behind, thank you for all the messages to encourage our swimmers.

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