St Stithians girls dominate at National Aquatics Tournament for second year in a row.

Divers, swimmers and water polo players from St Stithians Girls College recently obtained a record for being the only school, for the second year in a row, to win in all three disciplines at the National Aquatics Tournament.

The tournament was hosted at Our Lady of Fatima Dominican Convent School in Durban on 8 and 9 February.

The head of sport for the girls’ college Natasha Panzera said that she was incredibly proud of how the girls performed. Last year, the girls made history by winning all three disciplines and felt huge pressure to perform well again this year.

“The girls have been competing at a high level in all spheres for the past five years so the pressure didn’t get the better of them. The girls have trained hard and reaped the benefit of the hours of dedication.”

Panzera said that the tournament started off on a great note with the Saints girls’ winning the gala by bigger margins than last year. St Stithians obtained 450 points during the gala with Our Lady of Fatima Dominican Convent School and C&N Sekondere Meisieskool Oranje obtaining 407 and 363 points respectively.

“The swimming was not as close as I anticipated it would be and we were always going into the water polo as the favourites. However, the diving was always going to be touch and go with St Mary’s Waverley and it went down to the wire, with St Stithians only winning by five points,” said Panzera.

Panzera said all the girls train hard in their respective sports with many girls practising both at school and in the respective clubs. The swimmers train three times a week but many girls train twice a day, six days a week with their clubs. Water polo teams train five to six days a week and have a full match schedule. Divers train three times a week with other divers practising additional hours through their clubs.

Panzera commended the girls for their hard work and dedication and concluded, “The girls were ecstatic and relieved at the same time. I think they always believed that they could do it again but are very mindful that things can go wrong on the day. They remained focused throughout and were very proud of the results.”

Details: St Stithians College 011 577 6000.

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