Two titles for Pretoria swimmers at Midmar Mile
As usual, participants from Pretoria performed very well at this year's Midmar Mile Open Water Swimming Championships and two of the important titles at this event were won by local swimmers.
Pretoria was, as usual, very well represented on the podium during this past weekend’s 49th Midmar Mile, probably South Africa’s most popular and well-known open water swimming competition.
Two swimmers from Pretoria were crowned champions this past weekend during this prestigious open water event.
This competition is presented annually at the Midmar Dam in KwaZulu Natal. After the frustration that participants had to experience over the past two years due to Covid regulations, there was also a lot of emotion and nostalgia involved this past weekend for swimmers who have always regarded the event as a highlight on their calendar.
The 19-year-old Stephanie Houtman from TuksSwimming were crowned as first-time champion in the elite race for women, while the well-known veteran Gary Albertyn is again the champion in the men’s 51-60 division.
Connor Buck from Kwazulu-Natal won the elite race for men.
Just a week ago, Houtman, a former pupil of Pretoria High School for Girls (Girls High) wasn’t even planning to compete but made the last-minute decision to head to the famous KwaZulu-Natal dam for the event.
Photo: Roxanne Martin
It was Tory Earle who took an early lead in the women’s race, reaching the 400m and halfway points in front. But Houtman steadily worked her way to the front by the 1200m mark and powered ahead to win in 19 minutes 37 seconds.
Finishing 13 seconds back was her TuksSwimming training partner Samantha Randle, with 17-year-old Mykae Forrest hot on her heels in 19:51.
“It was a good race. I was actually really happy with it. Towards the start it was very bundled, everyone was on top of each other and then towards the first buoy everyone started spreading out and I started finding my rhythm and I just went for it,” said an elated Houtman afterwards.
Meanwhile, Gary Albertyn was in impressive form in the men’s 51-60 race. Having completed the 16-mile charity challenge on Friday, Albertyn claimed victory in his age group in a time of 21:11, beating the 31 to 40s and 41 to 50s in the process.
“I was feeling it a bit this morning, but it went well. The water was nice and calm so I had to just put my head down and go,” said Albertyn, who has now completed a whopping 142 miles after all his charity swims.
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