Personal Statement
Hi folks,
I am 15 and love the water! I enjoy pool swimming and have excelled at breast stroke, but I enjoy all swimming and am quite a capable IM swimmer too. I have started this last season 2019/20 trying open water swimming and have really enjoyed the freedom of fresh and salt water. I qualified to swim 5km and 7,5km at SA Nationals in Jeffrey's Bay and came 7th in 7,5km U16 and 4th U15 in South Africa. So if I apply myself, I believe I can do better.
I am also a qualified Junior Lifeguard and represent Clifton Surf Lifesaving Club, which is on the Atlantic sea side. I have represented the Western Cape Provincial Lifesaving team now for the last 3 years and was selected for the 2020 squad again, but this has all been cancelled. My specialities are surf swim, RunSwimRun and Ironwoman and Malibu events. Last year at SA Nationals I came 2nd in Surf swim, 3rd in Iron Nipper and 4th in RunSwim run. I had been training very hard for these events again this year and found that my passion for the sea, open water and pool training had made me very strong.
With regards my pool swimming - again because of my open water training efforts, I have become much stronger in the pool too and had achieved several PB's in the 2020 season (200IM, 200 breast )and was preparing to compete at SA National level at the end of March in Durban, where I believe I would have achieved more PB's. I was also looking forward to achieving better times at Nationals on the longer distances, 400 and 800m and possibly the 1500m too. Our 2019 season for pool swimming has also been rather challenging with a severe draught and water restrictions, many pools closed and we had limited competitive pool events. So I feel that my 2020 season was on track for some great times.
We are all unfortunately living in uncertain times with regards our future with Covid -19 and the swim season ahead, but I have been applying myself to land base training on Zoom with my coach and squad members and also utilising what we have at home (treadmill and stationery bike) during this lockdown time, focusing on my core and maintaining fitness levels. Fortunately we have a small pool and have done resistance training as much as possible with autumn in the air.
I am Looking forward to moving into a more positive time and getting back in the water and on the blocks, as soon as it is safe to do so!
Thank you,
Savannah Voigt
