It's no longer a secret what Callan Lötter does on the second weekend in March, she wins gold medals.
This past weekend, during the South African Open Water Swimming Championships in Jeffreys Bay, she won the 10km, 5km, and 3km knockout titles. This is the second consecutive year that the Tuks swimmer has achieved the hat-trick.
What's interesting is that Lötter turned 20 on Monday. Last year, she won the 5km on her 19th birthday. So it could be argued that her birthday present to herself is a gold medal. Lötter laughs when asked about it.
"I guess you could say so. I must admit it's very special to win three titles again. The 'wow' moment was on Friday, when I won the 10km in under two hours. That was my goal from the beginning. My time of 1:59:36 is the second fastest of my career and the fastest I've swum in Africa."
For the record. Lötter swam 1:54.15 in Portugal last year. A sub-2-hour time in the 10km open-water event is seen as a benchmark in women's swimming.