The Nelson Mandela Bay Aquatics (NMBA) open water swimming season kicked off on Sunday morning with the first round of the provincial Swim Series taking place at the pristine Marina Martinique, home of the SA Open Water Swimming National Championships in 2019.
Over 100 swimmers from around the Eastern Cape took full advantage of the opportunity to secure early qualification times for the season with great swimming conditions on the morning with water temperatures permitting wetsuit legal races.
This season there is a strong drive by NMBA to encourage swimmers into the longer distance races and in particular the Olympic distance 10km race with an incentive of a top of the range locally produced Blusmooth wetsuit as a 10km lucky draw at the end of the Series in January. 16 year old Flippie Van Der Spuy from the BEST swimming club won the 10km race on Sunday in a time of 2 hours 16 minutes ahead of Infinity Swimmer Josh Tucker (2:18:41) and Team Watersmart’s Heinrich Vorster (2: 22:25) with Infinity swimmer Jessica Booth winning the ladies 10km division in a time of 2: 34:43. All four swimmers were inside the Swim SA 10km qualifying time of 2h30min for Men and 2h40min for Ladies.
3 swimmers contested the Youth Olympics distance of 7.5km with young up and coming SA swimmer Tasneen Ebrahim finishing in 1hr 47 ahead of Grahamstown swimmer Shaelyn Walker (1:56:07) and Luke Norris. In an increasingly popular 5km swim, it was the battle of the former legends of watersport with former national surf lifesaver and local swim coach, Haydn Holmes pipping former SA swimmer and surf lifesaver Kevin Richards with Deacon Kingman placing 3rd in the Men’s race whilst Amica de Jager won the ladies race ahead of Hannah Murray and Tayla-Paige Lacey with the top 3 men and top 2 ladies qualifing within the SSA 5km qualification time of 1 hour 15 for Men and 1 hour 25 for ladies.
In the 3km swim it was PJ Duffy who won in a time of 42 minutes and 31 seconds from MC Strydom and Martin Wolmarans with Liza Muller (43:28) taking the ladies race ahead of Denise Bosman and Tiara Finnis. The first 9 Men in this race qualified in 48 minutes and under whilst the top 9 ladies managed to swim under their 50 minute qualification time.
The event also received praise from Swimming South Africa who will be hosting the South African Open Water National Championships at the same venue on the 2nd and 3rd March 2019. “By all accounts, the E Cape Series Swim 1 was a resounding success, despite the cold water and inclement weather. On behalf of SSA I would like to congratulate the NMBA Open Water Swimming technical committee for staging a highly successful event.” said Neville Smith, Swimming SA Coordinator of Open Water Swimming.
Also included in the morning’s events is two social events, the 1.25km swim and a 500m swim. In the 1.25km swim leading SA swim coach from PEA, Mark Edge, won in a time of 12 minutes and 11 seconds ahead of Logan Croft and Noah De Swart with Emma Lacey winning the ladies race in 19minutes and 53minutes ahead of Kiara Croft and Kaitlynne Horne whilst Jan-Daniel Cilliers won the 500m from Steffan Rademeyer and Hinton Douguas with Neeshaan Salie winning the 500m girls race from Heidrin Gerber and Sane Jacobs.
The next Swim Series event takes place at Marina Martinique in two weeks time, see www.zsports.co.za/ecswim for discounted early bird entry. Registration closes on the Friday afternoon before race weekend and late entry fees do apply.
SUMMARY RESULTS – THE SWIM SERIES,MARINA MARTINIQUE, SUNDAY 14th OCTOBER 2018
10km Swim
MEN: 1 Flippie Van Der Spuy (2:16:03); 2 Josh Tucker (2:18:41); 3 Heinrich Vorster (2:22:25);
LADIES: 1 Jessica Booth (2:34:43);
7.5km Swim
MEN: 1 Luke Norris (2:00:49);
LADIES: 1 Tasneen Ebrahim (1:47:54); 2 Shaelyn Walker (1:56:07);
5km Swim
MEN: 1 Haydn Holmes (1:04:13); 2 Kevin Richards (1:05:50); 3 Deacon Kingman (1:11:53); 4 Stephan Vorster (1:17:45); 5 Christian Appels (1:19:58); 6 Mike Phillips (1:49:55); 7 Bernhard Kapp (1:59:46);
LADIES: 1 Amica De Jager (1:04:16); 2 Hannah Murray (1:09:01); 3 Tayla-Paige Lacey (1:18:42); 4 Tyra Roozendaal (1:20:01); 5 Janine Van Rooyen (1:50:16); 6 Nina Petra Bodisch (1:57:14);
1.25km Swim
MEN: 1 Mark Edge (12:11); 2 Logan Croft (20:02); 3 Noah De Swart (20:06); 4 Conor Moynihan (20:29); 5 Albert Klopper (22:48); 6 Marc May (23:22); 7 Faiq Jappie (24:12); 8 Liam Prime (24:52); 9 Darius Hiten (27:51); 10 Connor Barnardo (27:55); 11 Robin Coyle Dowling (28:25); 12 Ben Joubert (29:57); 13 James MacLear (30:56); 14 Richard MacLear (30:58); 15 Christopher Pirie (31:34); 16 Johannes (jc) Oosthuizen (31:35); 17 Murray Bailes (32:41); 18 Conrad Marais (32:41); 19 Justin Gemmill (35:40); 20 Liam Viljoen (37:59);
LADIES: 1 Emma Lacey (19:53); 2 Kiara Croft (20:03); 3 Kaitlynne Horne (20:43); 4 Quinlee Collins (21:10); 5 Emma Puffett (21:35); 6 Amika Compaan (22:55); 7 Lesley Lee (22:57); 8 Minique Compaan (22:58); 9 Chere Donian (23:01); 10 Alrie Velleman (23:11); 11 Megan Hough (23:25); 12 Sharon Viljoen (24:00); 13 Kelly Sparg (24:18); 14 Reze Van Rooyen (26:02); 15 Claire Redman (27:25); 16 Zara Schoeman (27:50); 17 Hannalo Cilliers (32:44); 18 Saadiyah Salie (36:22); 19 Zoe Viljoen (36:37); 20 Natalie Scott (41:01); 21 Heather Ann Coyle-Dowling (41:44);
3km Swim
MEN: 1 Pj Duffy (42:31); 2 Mc Strydom (43:19); 3 Martin Wolmarans (43:25); 4 Greg Hough (44:51); 5 Mark Edge (44:54); 6 Greg Tucker (46:11); 7 Marnus Kotze (46:16); 8 Shu’Aib Lindoor (47:12); 9 Matthew Tucker (48:00); 10 Ethan Harris (48:03); 11 Gareth MacLear (48:04); 12 Bryce Buret (48:11); 13 Connor Jay (49:55); 14 George Marais (55:07); 15 Nathan Hendricks (00:09); 16 Nicholas Pirie (00:13); 17 Ronnie Doyle (10:39);
LADIES: 1 Lize Muller (43:28); 2 Denise Bosman (44:15); 3 Tiara Finnis (44:20); 4 Teegan Pio (44:37); 5 Zanli Klopper (44:39); 6 Robyn Hough (46:15); 7 Tammy Greenwood (46:20); 8 Alexa Barnard (47:58); 9 Philippa Sparg (48:17); 10 Kate Tinley (50:10); 11 Samantha Mouton (54:03); 12 Lia Kotze (56:19); 13 Elsa Craig (01:23); 14 Josephine Palmerin (02:11); 15 Trevlyn Lotz (04:52);
500m Swim
MEN: 1 Jan-Daniel Cilliers (07:35); 2 Steffan Rademeyer (10:10); 3 Hinton Douguas (11:17);
LADIES: 1 Neeshaan Salie (10:44); 2 Heidrin Gerber (10:50); 3 Sane Jacobs (11:25); 4 Rushda Jappie (12:32);
Alan Straton
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