There is no longer any question about the best swimming club in South Africa; it is Tuks.
The results of the SA National (25m) Championships in Pietermaritzburg this past weekend proved it. Tuks swimmers won a total of 56 medals (19 gold, 16 silver and 21 bronze). Cardinal Aquatics was second on the medal table with 18 (9 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze). Westville Swimming Club, with seven gold and one bronze, is in third place.
Tuks’s men and women won their respective team competitions. Tuks was also the overall winner with 904.5 points. Maties was second with 358 points, and Cardinal Aquatics was third with 346 points.
Dune Coetzee, who is back from America, was one of the great standouts. She won the 200m freestyle (1:59.71), 400m freestyle (4:11.38) and 200m butterfly (2:14.16) and was second in the 100m freestyle (56.36s) and 2nd in the 100m butterfly (1:00.97).
What makes her performances remarkable is the fact that she has only been back at Tuks for two months to train under the watchful eye of Rocco Meiring (head coach). Any athlete will tell you that it is initially challenging to adapt to a new coach’s approach.
Yet Coetzee came very close to improving her best times in several events. In the 100m freestyle, she did achieve a new personal best. Her time of 56.36 seconds is 0.13 seconds faster than her 2020 time. In the 200m freestyle, she missed swimming a faster time than in 2020 by less than a second. In both butterfly events, she also missed out on setting new bests by less than a second.
“Of course I would have liked to have swum faster times, but I also have to be realistic. We didn’t taper at all for the championship. The idea behind my participation in the championship is to assess my current capabilities and identify areas that need improvement to become faster. This is the first time in five years that I am participating in the South African Short Course Championship again.”
According to Coetzee, it is nice to be back at Tuks, where her passion for swimming was sparked.
“The most crucial thing that Coach Rocco and I are working on at the moment is to improve my swimming speed. It won’t happen overnight. The time I spent studying and swimming at the University of Georgia taught me how to race. We basically competed every second week. It meant pushing your body to the limit, regardless of how you felt. I will always be grateful for that.
“I will always be grateful for my time at the University of Georgia. It made me a stronger and better person.”