Italian delight for local swimmer

Up-and-coming Gordon’s View swimmer Jaiden Staines has left his mark in Europe following his maiden trip abroad.

In his first overseas trip as a swimmer, the 16-year-old Grade 10 St Dunstan’s College learner traded the colder South African winter for the milder European summer and returned from Italy earlier this month with a rich haul of medals from two prestigious outdoor events.

His fortnight-long Italian escapade with a composite South African team (East/Central Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal) started at the Swim City Gala in the picturesque town of Pesaro on Italy’s scenic Adriatic coast, where he gained a pair of silver medals in the 50m and 100m breast stroke events.

His travels then took him to the northern city of Treviso where he bagged a gold medal in the 100m and silver in the 200m breast stroke events.

The team was accompanied by national head coach Graham Hill and high performance manager Dean Price and the trip also included a series of intensive training camps.

No sooner had the quietly-spoken youngster with the calm demeanour and ice-cool temperament stepped off the plane and set foot back on home soil, than he was straight back into training and pre-competition mode.

He competed in the Eastern Gauteng Winter Championships in Boksburg and walked away with no less than 10 medals (six gold, two silver and two bronze) across various disciplines ranging from breast stroke to individual medley.

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Staines, who has been swimming competitively since the age of 10, is a member of the Eastern Gauteng X-Cel Elite senior squad and has been training at the Boksburg Aquatic Saints Club under the tutelage of Wade Marshall for the past two years.

Marshall told the City Times that his student has a ‘very high work ethic’ and had adapted well to his individual programme in the time spent with the club.

He is in the top five in his age group nationally in his strongest stroke (breast stroke) and his efforts were recently acknowledged when he was awarded his Eastern Gauteng honours blazer.

Even during the cold winter months up on the East Rand, there is no let-up and his routine involves indoor training a minimum of seven times a week, ranging between two to two-and-a-half hours per session.

“I believe Jaiden has the potential to take the step up to the next level and excel in other events besides breast stroke if he continues to work hard,” concluded Marshall.

As for Staines, who lists Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh as personal role models, he is targeting the 2020 National Championships as his next stepping stone.

With two and a half years still ahead of him before he matriculates, he admits to being a person who lives for the moment and hasn’t paid too much attention to his long-term swimming career yet but didn’t rule out the possibility of applying to various American colleges.