Four Nelson Mandela Bay swimmers are among the 27 juniors who will represent SA at the 2025 World Aquatics Junior Championships in Otopeni, beside the Romanian capital Bucharest, from August 19-24.
The six-day competition will take place at the Otopeni Aquatics Complex, a facility purpose-built for hosting world-class international swimming events with a 2,400-seat capacity.
The swimmers from Infinity Swimming Academy who have qualified are Jaime Mote, 16, Keira van Heerden 17, Myra Viduya, 17, and Kellen Jones, 15.
Mote qualified for the 100m butterfly. after finishing third in the country in this event at the SA Senior Nationals, as well as second in SA in the 200m butterfly.
Van Heerden, a grade 12 at Pearson High, qualified in the 200 IM and is also ranked in the top five in the country in this event.
Viduya, in grade 12 (homeschooled), will be swimming both the 100m butterfly and 50m breaststroke. This will be her third Junior World Championships.
Jones, who is in grade 9 at Theodor Herzl, will be swimming the 400m freestyle. He will also be representing SA at the Senior World Open Water Championships in Singapore in July.
Infinity swimming coach David Glover said preparations are well under way after the four recently returned from the Junior Africa Championship in Egypt.
“They've all been training very hard for the competition,” Glover said.
“We will train hard now until just before August. There is a preparation meet now in Gqeberha to do some racing practice called the PEA Gala.
“In Gqeberha, most of the swimmers swim here until they finish school, but because maybe the other universities are bigger and the other cities are bigger, they leave Gqeberha after school.
“So, for me, I'd like to take swimmers to the Olympics, but I mostly coach this junior age group from 14 to 18 years old.
“Four swimmers from Infinity qualifying for the competition show me that I am going in the right direction in terms of how I am training them.
“It's very exciting to have four out of the 27 members coming from my club. It's very nice to see that we are doing the right thing and the kids are doing very well.
“Gqebehra is a small city, so to have four people in the SA team is special.
“Also, these same four who have made it into the World Junior Championships just recently competed in the African Championships, and I was the coach for that trip, and they all did very well.”
The Herald
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