A contingent of eight South African open water swimmers, two head coaches and a team manager flew the country’s flag at the 2014 Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships, at Lake Balaton, in Hungary, from September 5 to 7.
The event was initially due to be held in Israel, but was later moved to Hungary, due to unrest.
Among the party of South Africans in Hungary were two Benonians, Savannah Barman (swimmer) and Wade Marshall (coach), of the Boksburg Aquatics Saints Club.
Barman (16) took part in the Youth Girls 5km swim and finished in 19th place of a total of 33 open water swimmers, in a time of 1:05:04.08, just four minutes and 24 seconds behind the overall winner.
“Our goal for Savannah was to finish in the top 20 and we achieved that in our first international event,” said Marshall on his student’s accomplishment.
“It was nice to meet swimmers from all over the world, who were all extremely friendly,” said the young swimmer from St Dominic’s School, Boksburg.
“It was also nice to see where we could be ranked in the world in all the different competitions, because we don’t get offered that much here in South Africa.
“It was a good experience to go up against some of the best girls in the sport.”
When asked about the standard of open water swimming overseas, compared to here, Marshall said: “I think the disadvantage for us is that South Africa doesn’t do enough events like this [5km swims] and we are not exposed to this type of competition.
“We host a lot more dam swims, where it’s only a 1.5km course, and hold only small, specific events around the country.
“I found that, in a lot of other countries, they are specifically exposed to open water, whereas we take our swimmers from the pool and throw them into the dam.
“We need to expose our swimmers to a higher level of competition in this sport.
“As a coach, I learnt a lot there about open water swimming.
“It’s a more tactical game, because it’s a longer race, which gives you a lot more to think about and plan for.”
Asked what was going through her mind during her 5km swim, Barman commented: “There was a group of swimmers in front of me and a group behind me.
“I basically swam by myself in the middle of the two groups and was just trying to catch the group in front of me and make as much progress as possible.”
The Sun City Open Water Swim in October is the next focus for the young swimmer, an event that consists of a 3km and a mile swim.
“Coming into the summer Savannah will probably be swimming dam swims almost every weekend, with more focus on the longer distance events,” added her coach.
“The next big goal for us is to get her back into the team for the Junior World Champs in two years’ time.”
All in all, Marshall is positive about the future of open water swimming in South Africa.
The South African juniors placed sixth of 38 countries and the seniors (17 to 18 years) came 12th of 35 countries.
“In general, it was a good performance from South Africa,’ he added.
