Stellar Stefan earns national gold

SWIMMING NEWS - George resident and Knysna Aquatics swimmer Stefan Steyn, 17, recently excelled at the SA National Short Course Championships where he claimed a gold medal in the Men's 400m Freestyle event and a silver in the Men's 200m Freestyle.

The championships were held at the Generation School Swimming School in Somerset West on 19 and 20 August.

A Grade 11 learner at Ecoltech in George, Steyn is predominantly a long course swimmer, but has put in some hard yards at training this year to improve his short course capabilities. He typically specialises in the 200m freestyle event, and had high hopes when he went to the short course nationals.

A good showing in the preliminaries of the 200m freestyle saw him clock the fifth quickest time ahead of the final. He took it up a gear in the final though, but still just missed out on the gold he was hoping for. Stefan finished in 1:50.60 to come home in a very respectable second place.

His best was yet to come in the 400m freestyle races though. During the preliminary qualifying stages he qualified fastest with a new personal best time of 4:02.09 - an incredible 4.41 seconds faster than his previous personal best time. To say Stefan went into hyperdrive in the final would be an understatement of note. He not only set a new personal best time, he absolutely smashed it.

Proud Knysna Aquatics coach Francois Boshoff (left) and Stefan Steyn.

Stefan touched in with a time of 3:56.89, setting not only a new personal best but also a brand-new Western Cape short course 400m freestyle record. This saw him walk away with the gold medal as the best short course 400m freestyle swimmer in the country.

"As a club, we are incredibly proud of Stefan and coach Francois and we can't wait to see what you'll achieve next!" Knysna Aquatics bragged about their star on social media.

"I'm very happy and pleased with my results," Stefan said.

"It's been a lot of hard work and while the long course championships didn't quite work out earlier this year, to have things pay off this way at the short course champs feels great. Setting a new Western Cape record is something that really means a lot."

Going forward, Stefan will now set his sights on long course once more in preparation for the national championships early next year.

"Our focus is now on getting Stefan ready to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics," said his coach, Francois Boshoff. "We're working hard and he's looking great, so we are looking forward to it."

Stefan Steyn in training in Knysna.