Uniswim Nelspruit Swimming Club sent four of their best to represent Mpumalanga Swimming at the SA Senior National Swimming Championships in Gqeberha from April 9 to 13.

These swimmers delivered exceptional performances. The four Uniswim Nelspruit contenders were the only Mpumalanga swimmers at the championships and far exceeded any previous performance by the province at senior nationals. Henning Radley, Jetro Piso, Miela Banza and Neil Burger produced 14 personal best times in their combined 19 individual events.

Miela (15), a learner of Penryn, stormed her way into three A finals; followed by Neil (18), who attends Hoërskool Nelspruit, who reached one A final and one B final. Considering Mpumalanga had never qualified for an A final before – and that both Lowvelders are still classified as juniors – these remarkable achievements are really put into perspective.

Making full use of the opportunity to take on Olympic swimmers, which pushed him further than he’d gone before, Neil managed to swim a World Aquatics qualifying time for selection to represent South Africa at the Junior World Swimming Championships in Romania later this year.

“Credit must go to Uniswim Nelspruit’s Olympic head coach, Chad Peterson, heading the Uniswim Nelspruit high-performance programme, and being able to prepare these swimmers to produce such remarkable results at the highest competition level in South Africa,” said Emile van Veenhuyzen of Uniswim Nelspruit, who is also a vice president of Swimming South Africa.