Eldos: A swimming champion in our midst
Making waves in the swimming league.
Junaid Scheepers (18) from Eldorado Park is making waves in the swimming league.
The youngster has already represented South Africa three times, and he is not stopping there. He will continue to represent the region, province and the nation for years to come.
Scheepers is current studying at the University of Johannesburg, Bcom in Information systems.
The young champion finds his hobbies in swimming, programming, reading and looking at the stock markets. In training, he swims every day, loves running and has a passion for bodybuilding too.
He has been swimming since the age of four years old, however, he only started competing at the age of 13.
Scheepers has represented SA once in Uganda and twice in Angola. Scheepers said: “In Uganda I came home with seven medals; one gold, two silver, and four bronze. And in Angola I came home with nine medals; four gold, a silver, and four bronze”.
Scheepers and his coach Roman Coutriers train every day of at the Coronationville swimming pool.
He swims for the SuperFins swimming club. “I’ve been swimming for Superfins for almost two years in September. I was previously swimming in Lenasia for Atlantis Swimming Club and before that, I swam for Lenasia amateur swimming academy (LASA).” said Scheepers.
He said: “the challenges that I face on a daily basis are getting here is a problem, you don’t technically get enough sleep and then when you get here your coach kills you. Travelling is a problem for me because it takes me two hours to get here with a bus and then in the afternoon when I get home it’s around 19:00 and I still have to study, wash, eat and so those things play a major factor in my training as well.”
According to Scheepers the important lessons that swimming has taught him is confidence, and it helped build a good high self-esteem. Swimming has also put his life in order and in that saying he has no time to catch on with any negative things that could possibly ruin his life.
Scheepers’ main strokes are found in the butterfly and freestyle and with all of the training, the swimmer still manages to teach seven to eleven-year-olds on how to swim.
Another achievement to Scheepers’ name is that he was voted best male athlete 15-16 years CANA Zone IV 2015 Luanda, Angola.
Scheepers is now on to the next with his new qualification as a young national swimmer for nationals that will be taking place from April 3 until April 9 at Kings Park, Durban.
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