Mrs J van Aardt

This year has been yet another one filled with many galas and keen participation by our swimmers. During the 2008/9 swimming season our swimmers were able to participate at the “B” Age-group and “C” Age-group galas.

The “C” Age-group galas cater for our swimmers when they first start swimming galas and are not yet ready to swim 50m. They swim over a distance of 25m. These galas are held at different schools on a Saturday morning and prove to be very exciting especially for our younger swimmers. St Dominic’s Priory hosted the 3^rd one in March. There were close to 200 swimmers on the day with many of our swimmers receiving certificates for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places.

We had on average of 25 swimmers swimming at each of the various “B” Age-group galas held at Gelvandale as the Newton Park Pool was under construction. After the 3 galas, 10 of our swimmers made it through to the Top Nine Invitational Gala held at Gelvandale in March.

They were: Payton Horton, Crystal Hulett, Erin Jarvis, Amber Jones, Brogan McArthur, Michael McLennan, Jacqui Stockwell, Ashleigh Vaughan, Jade Wood and Jody Young.

Erin received a Bronze medal for Backstroke.

Michael received a Bronze medal for Breaststroke.

Payton received a Gold medal for Butterfly and a Silver medal for Freestyle.

Ashleigh received a Gold medal for Freestyle and a Bronze medal for Backstroke.

One of the main events of our year is always the Inter-house Gala. Here Rosary House ‘swam’ away with top honours. Daniel Jones was the Victor Ludorum and Chrislie-Thandi Niehaus was the Victrix Ludorum.

The Reception Phase and Foundation Phase had their combined “Toffee Gala” as usual. The following swimmers are to be congratulated for being the top swimmers in their grades: Bradley van Zyl and Morgan Adshade (Grade 1), Matthew Peach and Jade Vaughan (Grade 2), Ryan Olivant and Erin Jarvis (Grade 3)

We were invited to participate at the Woodridge Sprints Gala. This is an annual event where the emphasis is on fun. We definitely had a most exciting and fun-filled afternoon. We were very proud of many of our swimmers who managed to finish in the top three positions in many of the events.

We are extremely proud of Chrislie-Thandi Niehaus, Daniel Jones and Joshua Bellairs who were chosen to represent E.P Primary Schools Swimming Team. They participated at the SA Primary Schools Swimming Championships held in Germiston in March.

As we witness the completion of the new stands and changing rooms in the pool area, we look forward, with great anticipation, to the next summer swimming season.