Hold your breath and applaud these five individuals from Potchefstroom who will be playing underwater hockey against the best in the world.
Simeon Jooste, Bernie van der Walt and Danel Wentzel will proudly represent South Africa at the third u.19 and u.23 CMAS UWH World Championship at Castello de la Plana in Spain from 6-15 August. The experienced JD Aucamp and Pamela Mackor will be going with as coaches of these teams and hope that the new guns on the block can shoot goals in the warmer European conditions.
“In previous years, we performed exceptionally well. The 2006 World Championships in England and 2013’s one in Hungary are some examples of this,” said Aucamp who believes that his team is ready to show the other countries a thing or two.
Eight other countries will also compete for the title of World Champion and include traditional rivals Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Holland, France, Italy and England.
“The girls’ team achieved a third place at the previous championships in 2013 and we believe that they can do even better this time,” said Mackor. With the young Danel Wentzel from Potchefstroom Gimnasium as part of the team, there is every chance that a big prize awaits these Potchefstroomers in green and gold. Simeon Jooste and Bernie van der Walt are also two experienced underwater hockey players who have both been a part of this sport for five years.
They agree that they play for the passion of it but highlight different favourite aspects of the game. “I want to be the fastest players in the pool and be the one to hold my breath the longest,” said Jooste, who can hold his breath under water for two minutes.
“The best thing about the sport is scoring goals. I want to score as many as I can,” said van der Walt.
