Emma: Crawford Ruimsig’s Dolphin
Emma began swimming at the age of 11 and claims to have only recently begun "regaining her mojo".
Emma van Niekerk, a talented Crawfordian, competed for both the Central Gauteng Aquatics (CGA) and her swimming club The Crusaders in the Seagulls Short Course Championship, which was held from October 6 to 9 at Kings Park Pool in Durban.
There were 670 swimmers from 46 clubs across the provinces competing, including some of our SA Olympic swimmers.
Emma began swimming at the age of 11 and claims to have only recently begun “regaining her mojo”.
“I’ve only recently gotten back on my feet, regaining my times and being able to push past some of my personal best times. I appeared to have hit a ‘lull’ for a while, but with hard work and determination, as well as my brother’s encouragement, I have now gotten back on track. My friends have also had a significant impact on my swimming, assisting me in getting back to where I should and want to be. I’m working hard to improve my times so that I can compete in SANJ in breaststroke and, hopefully, make it to the Olympics one day,” said Emma.
“We call Emma ‘dolphin’ because she is smart and swims so well,” her best friend, Enya du Toit, added.
Emma competed in 14 events at the Seagulls Gala, with personal bests in 11 of them:
Girls 100 Backstroke, girls 200 Breaststroke, girls 15-16 100 Freestyle, girls 15 and over 50 Freestyle, girls 100 butterfly, girls 15 and over 50 Backstroke, girls 15-16 100 Breaststroke, girls 200 Freestyle, girls 100 breaststroke, girls 100 Freestyle, girls 200 backstroke, girls 15 and over 50 Breaststroke, girls 200 IM, and girls 15 and over 50 Butterfly.
