Tuks are the USSA swimming champions for the 7th consecutive year
At this year's USSA Championships, Tuks' swimming team once again showed that no other university in the country can compete with them when it comes to achievements in the swimming pool.
The South African golfing legend, Gary Player, once famously said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get”.
Player is a firm believer that luck in a skill-based endeavour is not entirely random but the result of long, hard hours of training. It is a case of the more you practice and hone your skills, the better you become.
Judging by the results of the University Sports South Africa (USSA) Swim Championships, there is undoubtedly truth in this. Over the weekend in Stellenbosch, Tuks was crowned champions for the seventh consecutive year.
Overall, Tuks scored 405 points. Maties was second with 299, and Varsity College third with 271. Tuks’ men won their team competition, as did the women. Tuks’ Kaylene Corbett and Henré Louw also provided the best performances of the championship according to the World Aquatics points table.
Corbett, who earlier this year won a bronze medal at the World Swimming Championships, won the 200m breaststroke in Stellenbosch in 2:26.21 (830 points). Her winning time of 1:08.47 (821) in the 100m breaststroke was the second-best performance of the event.
Louw won the 400m freestyle in 3:58.54 (785 points) and the 1500m freestyle in 15:58.82 (748). It was the third time that Louw has represented Tuks at the USSA Championships. He considers the event one of the highlights of the local swimming calendar.
Photo: Reg Caldecott
“What makes USSA’s special is the fact that you swim for the team and not yourself. No one wants to let their teammates down. For us at Tuks, it’s a great team-building exercise. After every USSA’s there is an incredible camaraderie between us. Of course, it’s also very special to win the trophies for Tuks,” Louw remarked after the championship.
According to Louw, he was surprised by his times in the 400m and 1500m freestyle events.
“We didn’t taper at all for the championships, so I didn’t expect to swim those times. My big goal is to qualify for next year’s Commonwealth Games. That means I will have to swim even faster. I am up for the challenge. I will have to work on improving my underwater techniques as well as my start. I have spoken to Pieter Coetze a lot about this. It is incredible how his underwater techniques have improved from the past to the present. Pieter often encourages me that I can do it too,” he said.
Another thing Louw believes he will have to work on is his start.
“I am too static on the blocks, meaning my reaction time is not what it should be. If you have a bad start in the 200 and 400, you make things difficult for yourself. There are exercises in the gym that I do to improve my explosiveness and reaction time,” he concluded.
The other Tuks swimmers who impressed over the weekend and whose performances ranked as top ten on the World Aquatics point system are: Women: Catherine van Rensburg (800m freestyle – 6th), Hannah Pearce (200 m backstroke – 8th), Hannah Robertson (200m freestyle – 9th).
Men: Arno Kruger (400m freestyle – 4th and 1500m freestyle – 5th), Adriaan Louw (100m backstroke – 6th), Benjamin Plattner (100m butterfly – 9th), Oliva Lange (100m breaststroke – 10th).
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