The national open-water swimming squad dominated proceedings at the French Cup event in Lodeve on Sunday.
Once again the trio of Shaun Dias, Kenneth Smith and the promising Chad Ho produced an impressive performance that must augur well for the discipline in the future.
The venue, Lac Salagu, situated in the southern French winelands, is a lake in a volcanic crater. On a windless day and the water temperature at a pleasant 23 degrees Celsius, the race got under way just after 11am on a triangular course that was conducive to fast times.
Coming out of the first buoy, Ho took the intuitive and set the pace. With Dias preferring to detach himself from the pack, Smith tucked in behind Ho as the Kloof youngster headed the field for the first lap. Going into the second lap, Dias surged and his teammates responded, leaving the local challenge in their wake.
With 800m to go, Ho made a move and opened up a lead of about 20m over his teammates, but Dias and Smith dug deep and with 200m to go it was anyone’s race.
Coming into the finish, Smith positioned himself to strike, but as in Ambares his indecisiveness was to prove his downfall as Dias edged past Ho to claim the honours, while Smith once again had to settle for the minor placing.
Dias won in an impressive 55:28,33, followed by Ho (55:29,77) and Smith (55:31,77).
In the women’s event, a determined Dimitra Drakopoulus followed up her fine performance in Ambares when she once again claimed victory in a time of 57:49,66, finishing sixth overall.
National open-water swimming-squad manager Neville Smith enthused after the race: ”The whole squad has performed very well on this trip. Full credit must go to their coaches, Igor Omeltchenko and Nick Grey, for their excellent preparation.
”When one considers that these guys are training hard every day, clocking between 14km and 16km per day and still getting out there and producing world-class performances at the weekend, the future of open-water swimming certainly looks good.” — Sapa