Kemptonian Clayton Malaza competing in Maputo at 1X Golfinhos Sprint Swim Gala
Clayton Malaza, Savannah Mitchell, Murray Copeland and Kyle Mckenzie were all selected to represent Eastern Gauteng, and compete with the top swimmers from Northerns, Central and Eastern Gauteng at a sprint gala to be held in Maputo from the 21 to 23 October. The three teams from Gauteng, will be travelling together. This will aid in building teamwork amongst our top age group swimmers….. and we are sure there will be lots of antics along the way!
Savannah unfortunately cannot travel as she is writing her Matric Finals. Murray and Kyle have other commitments that they cannot postpone, but all hope to be selected again next year..
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Update 25 Oct 2016
The Golfinhos Sprint Gala is part of the Libombo region Tri-nations Sprint Gala, in which clubs from Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland take part. This meeting also marked the celebration of the host club’s (Golfinhos) 20th birthday. The champs took place at the beautiful Zimpeto Olympic Pool, one of the most modern swimming venues in Africa.
Following a successful gala in Durban 2 weeks ago, Clayton managed to once again lower his times, achieving 3 new Personal Bests in all four events that he swam.
In the 100 breaststroke he was entered on 1:23.09 and finished on 1:19.86. Clayton swam a 34.36 for the 50m backstroke and 28.59 for the 50 freestyle and 1:03.72 for the 100m freestyle.
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The work ethics instilled in the Aquatic Academy High Performance squad has seen swimming from Kempton and Edenvale athletes, raised to a different level. The squad swimmers do not often have the pleasure of a full weekend off and have enjoyed a diverse selection of events and galas ranging from Sprint to Long Distance events.
Since the introduction of the American coaching system into our club 18 months ago, our training culture has become more focused and our swimmers are excelling. Coach Liz is now a recognised, certified Level 5 Coach, with the American Swimming Coaches Association. This is the largest Coaching Association in the world.
The team has entered a different league. Their gala results have lead to the winning streak, that their SSA Registered club ESP has achieved..
In summarising the swimming season to date, listed below are the swimmers that have already qualified for Regional and National Events to be held in March and April 2017.
Many swimmers are very close to qualifying for the next level and have 4 months to realise their goals.
All Academy swimmers involved in this programme for the past 18 months have chopped chunks of time off their previous PB’s from a year ago.
The qualifiers to date are:
Youth National Qualifiers.(2)
Savannah Mitchell and Kyle McKenzie.
South African Junior National Qualifiers to date (3)
Savannah Mitchell. Murray Copeland and Kyle Mckenzie.
Level 3 Qualifiers: (9)
Keara Bothma, Jessica Burgess, Kerri-lyn Claase, Colette Fourie, Ciaran Le Goff, Jonathan Smith, Nicholas Smith, Ashleigh Stock, Caitlin Stott.
Level 2 Qualifiers: (14)
Phillipa Austin, Wyatt Banks, Brooklynn Bohler, Danika Brechenmacher, Kerrin Burgess, Morgan Corns, Clayton Malaza, Mikayle Pon, Adrian Ristow, Storm Ryder, Savannah Sheerin, and Zoe Stock.
Provincial (District) Swimmers. (8)
Kyle Mckenzie, Savannah Mitchell, Murray Copeland, Nicholas Smith, Jessica Burgess, Colette Fourie., Ashleigh Stock, Adrian Ristow
