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Ian Venter OWS
Ian Venter OWS Settlers Dam

16 year old Pearson High Scholar Ian Venter from Aquabear swim club and St Francis Bay resident, Amica de Jager, achieved the Nelson Mandela Bay Aquatics (NMBA) open water swimming (OWS) double on Sunday morning when they both added the NMBA 5km OWS titles to the 3km titles they won a week ago.

Venter swam comfortably behind Aquabear team mate Nicolas Adam for the first 3.5km of the race before moving into the lead and crossing the finish line in a fast 1hr 3min with Adam finishing in second place in 1:04:27 followed by Daniel Jones in 3rd place one minute and 5 seconds later. In the ladies category it was de Jager that impressed as she placed Adam to claim the ladies title ahead of Jessica Canter and Hannah Haswell, de Jager’s winning was 1hr 5min and 4secs. In the disabled 5km race it was East London teenager Jared Burger who won from PE’s Stanford Slabbert.

In the 3km swim it was East London swimmer Jarryd Holmes who won in a time of 40min 39sec from Grey High School scholar Cole Craig with Flippie van der Spuy in 3rd place whilst Paige Black won the girls 3km race from Erika Scheepers and Erin Jarvis.

Earlier in the day Cole Craig won his 2nd successive 1km swim of the Series in a time of 13:48 ahead of younger brother Connor with Megan Hobson winning the ladies 1km swim from Shaelyn Walker and Leebe Venter.

The final round of the EC Swim Series, hosted by Zsports Events NPC, was held at the picturesque fresh water venue of Settlers Dam just outside Grahamstown. The Series is the only Swimming South Africa (SSA) sanctioned swimming event in the Eastern Cape which affords swimmers the opportunity to attain SSA qualifying times for the SA Open Water Nationals taking place 5/6 March at Grabouw. Following the Series, Nelson Mandela Bay Aquatics have selected a strong 21 person team for the Championships which will be managed by PJ Duffy and Sharon Newman.

Open water swimmers are now preparing themselves for this coming weekend’s SPAR River Mile Festival at Sunday’s River and next weekend’s Jendamark Bellbuoy Challenge 5km ocean swim.

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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.