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Media Release : Pretoria News Roode 1000 Swim : 18 January 2009

The 11th Pretoria News Roode 1000 Open Water Swim took place on Sunday in perfect weather at the Baja Resort at the Bronkhorstspruit Dam. Main attraction on the day was Beijing Olympic open water contender and SA Open Water champion, the 18 year old Chad Ho who didn’t disappoint the large crowd and broke the Roode record in a time of 11: 38.8. Ho, who says he loves the Telkom sponsored event and came from Kwazulu-Natal to compete, won his first Roode when he was only 15 and has now won the event four years in a row. He was followed by previous winner Tyron Venter and young guns, Dirk Lambrechts, Francois Loubser and Reenen Du Plessis.

In the ladies main event Karlien van Heerden proved to strong for the rest and easily won in a time of 13:33.4. She was followed by Megan Gomes, Caroline Erasmus, Michelle Pistorius and Cassandra de Wet. Also in the top ten was Karen Lotter, a previous SA national 50m medallist. The boys 13 and under event was won by Matthew Crow, followed by Hermann Fechter and Neil Fair whilst in the girls event Ashley van den Heever won in 14:57.5, beating Romy Miller and Marlies Ross by half a minute.

The men’s 31 and over event saw a new champion with Dillon Byron winning in a time of 13:50, beating stallwards and previous winners Phillip Chappel and the never say die 59-year old Terry Downes. The ladies 31 and over event was again won comprehensively by the winner of the previous couple of years and legend in Pretoria’s swimming circles, Marieke Bouwer in a time of 16:46.1. Marieke also has the added distinction that she has competed in all eleven Roode swims since its inception.

Prizes were as always awarded to the youngest and the oldest swimmers with the legendary master’s swimmer, 78-year old Ted Beukes, 70-year old Ann Hanson, and 8-year olds Eric Coleman and Mmeli Hadebe taking home the prizes. Winners of the prize for schools with most pre-entries were Hoërskool Menlopark and Lynnwood Laerskool.

Neil Mole, chairman of the Roode organising committee, says that he feels that because of Telkom’s support and the excellent facilities at Baja Dam as well as the good water quality of the Bronkhorstspruit Dam, it was the best Roode event so far and reckons that if the open water swimming fraternity could sort out the problem of overlapping events in the Gauteng region, the number of Roode swimmers could double because of the rising popularity of the event and open water swimming in general.

Issued by Roode 1000 Swim Committee
19 January 2009

Willem Theron 0823764216
blouwil@mweb.co.za