The Nelspruit Swimming Pool witnessed some amazing performances as Mzansi’s top talent took to the water for the first swimming finals session of the 2020 SA Grand Prix today.
Luca Holtzhausen, Rebecca Meder, Christine Wessels, Brent Szurdoki and Tingwei Deng were over the moon with their double victories during the opening day of swimming action.
Holtzhausen edged out the competition in the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:55.97 ahead of Matthew Bosch in 1:56.44 and Guy Brooks in 1:58.62 and also won the 200m individual medley in 2:09.04, followed by Damian Mullen in 2:09.76 and Andrew Brown in 2:12.83.
Bosch also managed another bronze in the 50m freestyle in 24.97 behind Pieter Coetze in 24.69 and Kobe Ndebele in 24.95.
There was no stopping Brent Szurdoki as he clocked 2:06.52 to claim the 200m backstroke title ahead of Dylan Wright (2:10.03) and Coetze (2:11.26) and followed that performance with another gold medal in the 800m freestyle in 8:17.12 to Roberto Gomes’ 8:33.59 and Righardt Muller’s 8:37.19.
Gomes also walked away with the silver in the 100m butterfly in 57.65 behind Daniel Ronaldson in 55.62 and ahead of Chase Rayment in 58.20.
12 year old Deng from Johannesburg scooped the U13 100m freestyle top spot with a time of 1:01.94, while the silver and bronze went to Eric Huang and Jean-Arno Cilliers in 1:04.12 and 1:04.58, respectively.
Deng was on top of the medal podium once again for the U13 100m backstroke, where he touched the wall in 1:09.78 ahead of Huang in 1:12.73 and Armand Landmann in 1:20.98, while also winning a silver in the U13 50m freestyle in 28.72.
Meder and Catherine van Rensburg were the gold and silver duo in the 400m individual medley in 4:52.10 and 5:16.56 and then finished the 200m breaststroke in first and third in 2:34.39 and 2:41.73, respectively.
Wessels (13) clocked 1:10.91 to win the 100m butterfly ahead of Simone Henning in 1:14.45 and Julie Landmann in 1:26.42, and in the 200m individual medley, Wessels, Henning and Hannah Rigby made up the medal podium in 2:39.01, 2:45.81 and 3:04.24, respectively.
Kerryn Herbst beat out Hannah Pearse and Natalie Landmann to the gold in the 100m backstroke in 1:06.13, 1:06.34 and 1:06.91, while the 200m butterfly was won by Trinity Hearne in 2:26.00.
In the 400m freestyle, Dune Coetzee clocked 4:22.43, over 5secs ahead of Hannah Robertson in 4:27.73 and Chenay Dateline in 4:38.00, while 10 year old Miela Banza grabbed the gold in the U13 100m breaststroke in 1:25.04.
Aimee Canny, Erin Gallagher and Kirsten de Goede topped the 100m freestyle in 55.95, 56.02 and 58.09, while the 100m breaststroke medal podium consisted of Michael Deans, Bailey Musgrave and Kian Keylock in 1:04.53, 1:05.01 and 1:07.04.
In the 5km Open Water races, which took place in the morning, Leigh McMorran was once again first in 1:03:20.00, followed by Tory Earle in 1:04:15.00 and Carli Antonopoulos in 1:04:59.00, while on the men’s side, Flippie van der Spuy, Zac Ellis and Aiden Petersen claimed the top three places in 1:01:19.00, 1:01:21.01 and 1:01:21.02, respectively.
The Nelspruit leg of the SA Grand Prix concludes tomorrow with the swimming finals session starting at 08h30.
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