A swimmer and divers from St Mary’s School, Waverley make history
One Grade 11 learner from St Mary’s School, Waverley took on an ocean filled with sharks and whales for a 7.5km swim.
A Grade 11 learner from St Mary’s School, Waverley became the 17th teenager in history to successfully swim from Robben Island to Bloubergstrand in the cold Atlantic Ocean.
Sienna Blaauw swam this distance of 7.5km over the Easter break. Not only did she have to contend with the possible threat of sharks, whales or jellyfish, but water temperatures also ranged between 12.8 to 13.5 degrees and early swells of 2.5m.
Sienna and the rest of the swimming group encountered seals, and a sunfish and even saw a whale on their sunrise boat trip out to the island but once they set off swimming, the swells subsided. Sienna led the group for most of the way. The boat support crew provided hot tea breaks every 30–45 minutes although for the swim to be recorded, no swimmer is allowed to touch the boat or be assisted other than have ‘feeds’ thrown into the water.
Meanwhile, two divers from the school, Keratile Manaka in Grade 10 and Zalika Methula in Grade 11 represented South Africa in the International Youth Meet which was held in Dresden, Germany, in April. Keratile competed in U18 synchronised diving where she and her partner placed 10th. Zalika made history in her 1m competition where she placed fifth out of 36 divers in the preliminary event and finished 11th overall.
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