Earle and Randle eager to step up at Midmar

Both Tory Earle and Samantha Randle have edged closer to taking the aQuellé Midmar Mile title in recent years, so both will be eager to go one step further in the women’s elite race on Sunday.

Earle finished second to Olympian Michelle Weber in the 2021 event and has switched up her training since moving from Durban to Pretoria where she’s studying chemical engineering.

“This year my training has been a little different because I recently moved to TUKS and have been training under Rocco Meiring and Pieter Louw. I am excited to see how it feels to race after training at altitude,” said the 19-year-old.

Randle, who finished second in 2020 behind Robyn Kinghorn, has also been training hard for the upcoming race.

“We’ve been in heavy training at the moment and I’ve been doing lots of distance training, so I’m looking forward to see what I can do at this year’s Midmar,” she said.

While Weber won’t be contesting the race this year, 2020 champion Kinghorn will be in the women’s field along with Carli Antonopoulos, who powered to third place in last year’s race.

Earle admitted: “To be honest I don’t actually know who will be there but everyone in the elite race is strong competition. You can never underestimate anyone. All I can do is concentrate on my own swim.

“Open water is so unpredictable. I always go into a race just wanting to improve and to have a good swim. So that is what I hope for this weekend.”

Randle added: “I’m always just hoping for the best and there’s a lot of good competition participating so it will be interesting to see how we all swim the race… I like to just try and follow my own line and focus on my own race.”

This is the fourth time Randle is competing at the aQuellé Midmar Mile, and explaining what brought her back, the 23-year-old said: “It is always run so spectacularly by everyone involved and is one of the largest open water events and you can see why. It’s a beautiful location and a lovely dam to swim in and me, my family and friends always have such a fun time participating.”

Earle agreed: “I am so thankful for what an amazing job [Race Director] Wayne [Riddin] and his team do in organising Midmar. It hasn’t been easy to race in the last couple of years and I am grateful that Wayne is always looking after the open water swimmers.”

Meanwhile, in the Girls 13 and under category, Amelia Vincent from Eunice High School in Bloemfontein, goes into the event as the top-ranked swimmer while Durban Girls High School’s Jenna-Mae Lally is ranked second.

At the other end of the age spectrum, 80-year-old Beth Lordan is seeded sixth in the 71 and over category and will be looking to complete her 23rd aQuellé Midmar Mile while 62-year-old Gail Bristow is back to swim for an incredible 48th time. The Cape Town swimmer has completed every edition of the race, however, the first one was done unofficially as there were no women included in the event at that time.