MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Broken Toes Not Stopping Jessica

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This weekend’s Eastern Province Open Water Swimming Championships is set to be one of the most fiercely contested in recent times as regional swimmers start to prepare themselves for the 2012 London Olympics. The championships which takes place on Saturday and Sunday at Marina Martinique outside of Jeffreys Bay is certain to attract swimmers from around the Province as it offers an ideal platform ahead of the South African open water swimming championships at the same venue in April which will attract World Champions like Chad Ho and Natalie du Toit.

Saturday’s 10km and 3km events will see defending champions Michael Marais (10km), Chris van de Sande (3km) and Jessica Roux (both 10km and 3km) in action. Roux, who is sporting two broken toes, has entered for the 10km event and will be challenged by Zoe Venter from Gauteng. Venter almost caused a major upset at the SA Nationals last year when she almost pipped du Toit at the finish. Another challenger in the 10km swim will be the unofficial EP 25km champion Rebecca Newman.

van de Sande will be in for a busy weekend as he tries to defend his 3km and 5km EP titles. In Saturday’s 3km race he will have keen competition from the likes of Andrew Fischer, Jonathan Roux and the Jones siblings, Jason and Wayne whilst in Sunday mornings 5km race Fisher and Marais will be out to claim the title. Tammy Geyer currently holds the EP 5km title and will have to fight extremely hard against Roux, Venter and Newman in order to claim a podium finish on Sunday morning whilst the likes of Carmel and Lauren Billson, Tarryn Els and Sanmari Woithe cannot be discounted. An unofficial EP 1km swim will also take place on Sunday morning after the 5km race, last year won by Dominic Greeff and Jamie-Lee Schlemmer.

“We are expecting a very exciting championships this weekend as several of the local open water swimmers are keen to challenge for the national team ahead of this year’s World Championships at the end of July which also doubles as the first opportunity for swimmers to qualify for the Olympic Games.” Said Mike Zoetmulder of Zports, the event organisers.

This is an open championship with online entry just R60 and on the day entry R80 per event. Saturday’s program starts at 3pm and Sunday’s at 9am with directions to Marina Martinique available on the website www.ecswim.co.za.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.