South Africa’s premier artistic swimmers are descending on Cape Town this weekend for the Bombela Concession Artistic Swimming National Championships, taking place from 29 March to 1 April.
Among the elite field is top-ranked athlete Xera Vegter Maharajh, who is looking to reclaim the title of national champion after missing last year’s event with a concussion.
Vegter Maharajh, who represented South Africa at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, has had a condensed preparation phase for this year's event. Despite the tight turnaround, the 22-year-old remains confident as she prepares to compete in the Tech Solo, Tech Team, and Free Solo events.
"I started training again for this season at the end of January, so it has been quite a short preparation period," she explained. "I was a bit stressed going into preparation, but overall training has been good and I feel ready for the national championships."
Having struggled with a series of injuries and setbacks, Vegter Maharajh remains very much on the comeback trail.
"I was out of the water for nearly six months after Singapore doing rehab for my shoulder and recovering from a minor surgery. After that, I was excited to get back into training,” she said.
“So far it’s all gone smoothly. I feel a lot stronger this year after all the work I did for my shoulder... I’m more positive about this year since last year was a lot more of a struggle," added the Bachelor of Science student who is majoring in biochemistry, human anatomy and physiology.
Vegter-Maharaj’s training has to be scheduled around her studies.
“Usually I only train artistic swimming two to three times a week, so I try to include as many sessions of other training that fit into my schedule. I try to do gym sessions or normal swim sessions for at least an hour on the other days.”
As for fitting in her studies, she explained: “I try to take each week as a block and focus on finishing as much work as I can within that week, specifically. It helps me focus, stay flexible and get work done so that I can be mentally and physically present at training.”
Vegter Maharaj’s coach is the tournament director for the national championships, Sue Manners-Wood, who emphasised that while there is no Senior World Championships on the calendar this year, the domestic season remains a critical pathway for the country's rising stars. With the 2026 World Aquatics Junior Artistic Swimming Championships set for Budapest, Hungary, this August, the Cape Town event will be the final step in qualification.
“This South African Championship serves as the final selection for this junior team. We have a very strong couple of duets who are contesting for that position as the top duet to compete at Budapest, and they are the Malan sisters [Jadi and Kenzie] from CGA, as well as Aurelia Pretorius and Rebecca Schenk from Western Cape Aquatics. All four of them have represented South Africa before, and they're vying for the title of top junior duet in order to be able to go to Budapest.”
There are also several international athletes who will participate in Cape Town next week.
“We have three international competitors – one from Guinea, and then a duet from Canada,” explained Manners-Wood. “And their coach is a very famous man. He was one of the first mixed duets to ever compete at a world championship. His name is Robert Prevost, and he is going to perform at our competition on the last day.”
Those wishing to attend the championships should contact Sue Manners-Wood at sue@manners.co.za for further details.