World class performances at Northern Tigers Swimming championship
Achievements of international standard highlighted the quality of the participants at last week's Northern Tigers Swimming championship.
The Northern Tigers Swimming (NTS) annual championships was held last weekend at the Hillcrest pool in Pretoria.
Nineteen clubs affiliated with NTS participated in the championships. The event also got international status because of the participation of the Zimbabwe Swimming Federation, two clubs from Mozambique and the Dolphins Swimming Club from Namibia.
NTS spokesperson Magdaleen Fair, said swimmers of these clubs received special clearance to participate in the championships.
The event took place over three days with the excitement of all the finals that produced dazzling swimming action on Saturday.
Judged by the excellent achievements of the best swimmers at the event, it is clear that swimming in South Africa is still growing in all respects.
TuksSwimming dominated the event in all respects, scoring almost four times more points than their closest opponent. The Pretoria Aquatic Club was in second place, while the Dolphins Swimming Club from Namibia finished third.
Tuks’ swimmers were also largely responsible for the best individual performances of the championships.
Tatjana Schoenmaker’s brilliant time of 1:07:79 in the 100m breast stroke for women gave her the highest FINA points at the event. This performance of the star from TuksSwimming was worth 855 FINA points and it is also an Olympic qualifying time.
Lara van Niekerk’s time of 32.35 seconds in the 50m breast stroke for girls 14-15 years was also outstanding. Van Niekerk, who participated in the colours of the PAC Club, has set a new record for 14-year-old girls with this excellent performance.
The best performances by a male swimmer came from James Freeman of TuksSwimming with his time of 4:02:42 in the freestyle item for boys 16-17.
Other impressive performances by male swimmers were the 2:21:78 from Ruan Breytenbach (TuksSwimming) in the breast stroke for boys 14-15 and Jacques van Wyk’s 57.18 seconds in the 100m back stroke for senior men. Van Wyk is from Diadora Aquatics.
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