Aquabear Swim Club Dominate Marina Swim
For top local open water swimmer Pearson High School’s Ian Venter, it was back to winning ways at Sunday’s start to the Nelson Mandela Bay Aquatics’ EC Swim Series hosted at Marina Martinique and the rising of another potential open water star in Credence Pattinson, both from the Aquabear swim club in Port Elizabeth.
With just under 120 swimmers taking part in the first round of the Swimming SA sanctioned Series, Venter dominated the 5km swim winning in a SA qualifying time of 1hr 3min 47sec comfortably ahead of Bay Eagle Swim Club (BEST) member Daniel Jones and team mate Cole Craig whilst Kirsten Marriott (BEST) won the ladies 5km race in 1hr 5min 25 sec, some 30 seconds ahead of PEA’s Jessica Canter and Infinity swim club’s Hannah Haswell. Haydn Holmes and Amica de Jager, both from the Liquid Lines club in Cape St Francis, tackled the 10km swim finishing together in 2hrs 20minutes well within the SA qualifying time for this marathon distance.
In the 3km swim, Pattinson won in a fast time of 38min 33seconds and was followed home by team mate Nicolas Adam and Infinity swimmer Cullen Biddulph (who at just 14 years is another fast up and rising open water swimmer). The girls 3km swim was dominated by East London club Aquanova with Tayla Botha winning in a time of 42min 32seconds from Chloe Velde and Madison Malherbe. The 1km swim was won by 11 year old Britney Brown (15min 16sec) from Tayla-Paige and Delwen Henderson whilst in the boys it was Danre Du Preez (15min 34sec) from MC Strydom and Connor Craig. Also held on the morning was a 500m swim which was won by Wietske van der Westerhuizen from Greg Hough and Ben Joubert with Emma Lacey winning the girls 500m swim from Megan Hough and Katy Hofmeyr.
Next EC Swim Series event takes place at Marina Martinique in two weeks time, see www.ecswim.co.za for further information and to register online. Registration closes on the Thursday afternoon before race weekend and late entry fees apply.