Cape Town played host to a highly successful Bombela Concession Company Artistic Swimming National Championships from 29 March to 1 April, showcasing the country’s top talent across all levels.
The Western Cape emerged as the standout performers, claiming top honours with victories in both senior team routines, as well as the youth combination team event. They also secured gold in the senior technical duet through sisters Sarah and Casey Williams.
Among the individual highlights during the event, the Malan sisters, Jadi and Kenzie, from Central Gauteng Aquatics, delivered a superb performance in the junior technical duet, earning the highest score of the entire championship.
In the senior ranks, visiting Canadians Julia Yakovina and Mariya Gaidzel-Vassiliyeva from CAEM (Montreal) claimed gold in the senior free duet, while Yakovina also topped the podium in the technical solo event ahead of the Western Cape’s Xera Vegter Maharajh.
The senior free solo event saw visiting Guinean Alexandra Mansare-Traore take gold ahead of Vegter Maharajh, in a world-class contest between two athletes who represented their respective countries at last year’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
The Eastern Cape’s Tori Buitendag impressed in the junior ranks, taking home the junior soloist trophy, while Aquanova were crowned the top club in the Level 3 competition.
The event reflected the steady growth of artistic swimming in South Africa, with plenty of impressive performances on display.
Tournament Director Sue Manners-Wood was thrilled with the success of the event, saying: “It was a pleasure to host the South African Artistic Swimming Championships in Cape Town… Generally, I'm very happy with the standard that was shown at the competition. I think most of the swimmers had their best swims, they achieved their PB scores, which is a very good sign.”