SWIMMING NEWS - The Fish Eagles Masters Swimmers (Fems) hosted a very successful short course championships (SCC) last weekend.

The SCC is an annual event in South Africa, characterised by the shorter swimming distances of 25m lengths. This makes for a faster pace and twice as many turns, giving swimmers a great opportunity to focus on dives, turns, underwater kicking, power and speed.

The SCC took place over the whole weekend with a fun 25m gala at Glenwood House on Saturday morning and a 1km/3km open water swim in the Touw River at the Fairy Knowe Hotel on Sunday. 

While Fems swimmers made up a good part of the 41 participants at both the gala and the open water swim, many swimmers from other masters clubs along the Garden Route participated. 

This included the Royal Swim Academy, Fish Eagle Aquatics, Garden Route Swimming School, Waterbenders, Bluetits Sedgefield, Santos Seals, All-Weather(ed) Swimmass and Iron Jaw.

“It was a really good experience to be at the gala and see all the different age groups taking part,” said a participant, Darren Stadler. “It’s a nice gala, because it feels like there’s no pressure, and I cannot wait for the next one! It’s only my second time I’ve competed at the SCC, but the support was crazy and the atmosphere was nice.”

Master swimmers use their times from the SCC as seeding times when they enter into the SA Long Course Championships, which are held annually in March.

 Fems is hard at work preparing to host the 41st SA Masters Swimming Champs in George at the Conville Swimming Pool and Island Lake from 11 to 14 March next year. 

They are expecting swimmers to come from all over South Africa to participate and are looking forward to many swimmers across the Garden Route joining in.

Fems expressed its gratitude to the timekeepers, judges and officials at the SCC, and to the sponsors who made the event a fun, memorable one.

Masters swimming is open to swimmers ages 19 and up who compete in five-year age bands (eg, 19-24; 25-29, etc). There is no upper age limit, and it is delightful to see many swimmers competing even after they’ve retired. 

The youngest swimmer at Saturday’s SCC was Darren Stadler (24) and the oldest was Judy Dixon (84). Ludick Swart was the youngest swimmer in the open water swimming, joining in at the age of 19.

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