Swimmers ready for Midmar this weekend

A group of swimmers from Carletonville Swimming Club are ready for the aQuellé Midmar Mile at the Midmar Dam in KwaZulu-Natal this weekend.
This annual event is the biggest open-water swim in the world.

Several swimmers from Carletonville participated in the last seeding event for the big swim on 21 January. This open-water swim at Prime View Adventure & Leisure in Midrand drew several participants.

Annalisa Freese did a total swim of 7.5 km. Her first event was the 3-km swim, which she did in a seasonal best time and personal record of 00:58:56. Her second event was a 1.5-km swim that she completed in 29:56 min and secured her fifth place out of 63 swimmers in her category. Freese completed her third event, also 1.5 km, in 30:45 min and her fourth 1.5 km swim in 31:47 min.

“I felt a little depleted on my last event but still finished strong, and it was excellent training for my eight miles coming up.

“I will swim for Cansa on 8 and 9 February, including my Comrades duathlon. The family and age category events will happen on 10 and 11 February.

“I am very excited and grateful for all the contributions I received for this wonderful cause,” says Freese.

Another Carletonville swimmer, Carla Louw, completed 4.5 km for the day. Carla completed the 3 km swim in 01:08:25 and the 1.5 km swim in 35:52 min. Carla will do three miles over the Midmar weekend.

Meanwhile, Carsten Holfelder completed swims of 2.1 km for the day.
He did the 1.5 km in 32:20 min and his 600 m in 12:08 min, and came 13th of 66 swimmers in his category. He will do one mile on the coming Midmar weekend. Dustin Pienaar completed 1.5 km in 34:33 min, while Pieter Steinmann did his 1.5 km in 46:38. Dustin and Pieter will do two miles during the coming Midmar weekend.

It was an excellent training day, with a record number of swimmers in all batches, and we are very excited for Midmar to know we are ready.
Swimmers who were not part of the final seeding but will also be doing Midmar are Caitlin Doran, who will swim eight miles for Happy Bundles and her age category swim. Markus Homan and Tristan Steyn will do two miles over the weekend.

Annalisa Freese, Bianca Janeke, Caitlin Doran and Markus Homan will compete in their 10th Midmar. They will dedicate their swims to their late coach, Gerrie Grove, and friend, Michael Cuypers, who also passed away. Grove passed away from cancer, which motivated some of the local swimmers to help raise money for charities helping to fight the disease.