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. Lotter 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 2 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.
According to Lötter, the plan was to be out in front from the start in the 10 km race.
“The conditions were perfect, so I had to go for it, breaking two hours. My coach, Troyden Prinsloo, was there to help me. After every lap, he indicated whether I was on course to do what I set out to do or whether I had to up my pace.”
Lötter will be at it again in two weeks when she races the 10km at a World Cup event in Egypt. In August, she will compete at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in California.
Last Friday, Tuks’s Carli Antonopoulos was third in the 10km swim, with a time of 2:04:51.
Tuks’s male swimmers dominated the men’s 10km race. Henré Louw was first, swimming 1:54:46, with Connor Albertyn third in 1:54.55.
Louw, an honours student in Financial Management, was pleased with how his race played out.
“This is my fastest time yet at the championships. Our splits over the first 5km and the last 5km were 57 minutes. Starting with the swimmers in the 7.5km race helped a few of us get away in a break. Towards the end, everything boiled down to who wanted to win the most.”
It is the second time Louw has been the South African 10km open-water champion. Louw hopes to also compete at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.
