Young swimmers make their mark
While the 2003 KwaZulu-Natal Championships will undoubtedly be remembered as Melissa Corfe's championships after her string of records and titles, the event was far bigger than just a one-woman show, with a batch of young stars standing up and making their presence felt.
Not only did a vast number of KZN swimmers post SA championships qualifying times, but they showed the potential to take over the mantle of the likes of Terence Parkin, Charlene Wittstock, Kirsten van Heerden and the other seniors who are approaching the twilight of their careers.
Caitlin Edwards of Jean Nortje's Swim Academy and Tanya Bouffe of the Ryan Skinner Academy set the standards among the 11-year-olds, and Nortje's club took the honours in the Small Club category.
Bouffe actually won more points in her age group than Corfe did in the seniors' category and was awarded the Victrix Ludorum, while little Leah Coetzee, 12, another of Skinner's academy and competing against women a year older, also turned in some outstanding performances to claim several records and titles.
King's Park Falcons' Bianca Meyer and Durban Seals' Tanya Strydom (both 13) dominated their age category, with Meyer in particular deserving praise for her efforts in the 1500m freestyle race against the seniors, where she finished second to Corfe, in the process knocking 27 seconds off her own national age-group record, a truly outstanding effort and one which will make her a real threat to the big guns in the distance events in the future.
Among the men's 12-13 age group, 13-year-old Wesley Gilchrist (Mr Price Seagulls) and 12-year-old Dean Joubert de Villiers (RSAC) produced some fine efforts, but visiting giant Peter Todd, 13, of Gauteng kept their performances in perspective by beating both the local competitors in several events.
Ilse Otto, 14, of RSAC and Seals' Cheryl Townsend, 15, of Pmb Seals, were the sharpest of a competitive
14-15 age group, but it was their male counterparts who had the most competitive field.
The "Famous Five" of Rohan Jacobs and Shaun Dias (both Mr Price Seagulls), Wade Merchant of King's Park Falcons, Ryan Fincham of Beavers and Paul Bees of Pmb Seals went at it hammer and tongs for five successive days, and there was little to choose between them.
Jacobs probably held a marginal edge by the end of the tournament - he won the overall points category for the third consecutive year, an unprecedented event - but the others pushed him close, and considering Merchant had been suffering from glandular fever and managed only five weeks of training before the championships, KwaZulu-Natal has a lot of exciting racing to look forward to from this quintet.
Neal Versfeld, 17, of King's Park Falcons, who has declared his ambition of getting to the next Olympic Games at Athens 2004, delivered some outstanding performances against the seniors, particularly in the 100m and 200m breaststroke events, where he broke age-group records. In particular, his 2:17 in the 200m event was, as his coach Alistair Hatfield, pointed out, a world class time ... the previous record of 2:20 had been held by none other than Parkin, and places Versfeld on the brink of the Olympic qualifying mark of 2:14.20.
Another 17-year-old who should take a bow for his gutsy performance in the gruelling 200m butterfly final was Paul Dias of Mr Price Seagulls. When it started to hurt on that final leg, he dug deepest and beat off the likes of club-mates Kenneth Smith and Michael Francis to claim gold in an SA qualifying time of 2:10.53 and move out of the shadow of the performances of his younger brother.
Overall, an outstanding championship which saw many age-group records fall holds the promise of bigger and better things to come.
Are we at the dawn of a new era in KwaZulu-Natal? Only time will tell, but it looks really promising.