To the surprise of no one, the 2023 African Junior Swimming and Open Water Championships, being swum at the Cote d’Or National Sports Complex in Saint Pierre, Mauritius, has been largely dominated by South Africa and Egypt. The event runs from 6-9 December.
The South African team might have felt a twinge of trepidation when in the opening event, the men’s 14-18 400m freestyle, SA swimmers Keegan Wright and Aiden Nel, finished fifth and sixth, with the win going to Tunisia’s Rami Rahmouni, ahead of two Egyptian swimmers.
Very quickly, though, the South Africans had plenty to cheer when Georgia Els and Gabriella van den Berg finished one-two in the next event, the women’s 14-18 50m breaststroke, with Els clocking 32.42 to take the victory.
Els added another victory in the 400m individual medley, finishing over six seconds clear of the runner-up, Jasmine Eissa of Egypt, in 5:04.05.
South Africa’s girls continued to accumulate wins when Emma de Wet (feature photo) and Cassidy Burgess placed first and second in the 100m backstroke, with De Wet touching the wall in 1:03.67.
The Egyptians pulled one back in the 1 500m freestyle through Lamees Elsokkary, but SA’s Marony Jacobs and Zoe Griffiths took second and third.
Then, in the 400m freestyle relay, South Africa held off Egypt for the title, stopping the clock in 3:56.82, with the Egyptians only 0.34 behind, and Kenya, in third, almost 12 seconds behind the winners.
Victory in the individual 100m freestyle went Egypt’s way, however, with Nadin Mohamed pipping Lise Coetzee by 0.01 to take the title in 57.88.
There was nothing close about Jasmine Eissa’s 200m butterfly victory, though, as she cruised to the title in 2:22.05, close to four seconds clear of SA’s Marony Jacobs, in second.
Lise Coetzee had narrowly missed out on 100m freestyle gold, but in the much longer 800m she went unchallenged. Her time of 8:59.73 was well over 15 seconds clear of second-placed Lamees Elsokkary.
The South African girls continued their success with an emphatic victory in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Their winning time of 8:38.52 was over 10 seconds clear of Egypt, who secured the silver, and 43 seconds ahead of Mauritius, who bagged the bronze.
In the 400m mixed medley relay, it was Egypt ahead of South Africa for the gold, in 4:03.91, with Kenya a distant third.
While South Africa’s girls were comfortably the class of the women’s events, Egypt owned the men’s competition, stacking seven victories, while Tunisia’s Rami Rahmouni took two titles, and Ruben Smit claimed South Africa’s only victory, winning the 100m breaststroke in 1:04.26 ahead of Ahmed Hany of Egypt, with whom he had tied in the prelims when both stopped the clock in 1:05.04. Rahmouni’s second title came in the 800m freestyle, which he won in 8:15.53.
Meanwhile, Egypt produced two double winners, with Nasr Ahmed capturing the 100m butterfly in 53.03, and the 200m freestyle in 1:50.41. Abdelrahman Farag did the backstroke double, taking the 100m in 56.76, followed by 26.94 for the 50m, which was his time in both the prelims and the final.
South Africa’s Lance Cromhout was second to Farag in both the 50m and 100m backstroke.
Egypt added further victories in the 50m butterfly – which Mohamed Walid Abdel Aziz won in 24.70, with SA’s Joshua Esterhuysen third in 25.21 – and the 200m individual medley, with their swimmers taking a one-two. Youssif Ramadan won gold in 2:08.16, while Juan Boshoff added a bronze medal for South Africa after finishing third in 2:09.06.
The 4 x 100m men’s freestyle relay also ended in victory for Egypt.
A product of Clifton (Nottingham Road) and St Andrew’s School (Bloemfontein), Brad Morgan played schools’ provincial cricket and hockey. He has worked in radio, online and for newspapers. He also previously handled media matters for the Natal Canoe Club, which hosts the Dusi Canoe Marathon, and for the Midmar Mile. Brad has, furthermore, co-authored books on the Dusi Canoe Marathon and the Comrades Marathon. He holds no particular biases towards South African sports teams but, beyond South Africa’s borders, is a big fan of the Green Bay Packers and Liverpool FC. Brad enjoys photography and music, and likes working to some good dub techno in the background.
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Publish date : 2023-12-08 08:00:00
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