World short-course championship 200m gold medallist Suzaan van Biljon held off strong challenges from fellow breaststroke star Cameron van der Burgh and freestyle sensation Melissa Corfe to be named as swimmer of the year, at the Telkom Annual Aquatics Awards function held at Vodaworld in Midrand, on Saturday.
Pretoria-based Van Biljon won gold for SA in the 200m breaststroke at the Fina World Short-Course Championships held in Manchester in April this year. She also collected the bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke at the same event.
Van der Burgh’s biggest performance was in winning bronze in the 100m breaststroke at the world short-course event in Manchester, as well as a double haul of gold in the 50m and 100m breaststroke at the All-Africa Games held in Algeria last year.
At the All-Africa Games, Corfe, who hails from Durban, won the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle events and took home silver in the 100m and
200m backstroke. She was also part of the SA relay team wins in the 4 x 100m freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle and 4 x 100m medley relay events.
Swimming SA’s awards committee took into account performances set between the period of May 1 2007 to April 30 2008.
Natalie du Toit was announced as swimming SA’s personality of the year. This category was decided by public voting on the internet.
Soweto Aquatics, were named as the development club of the year, while Julie Adams received the award for the learn to swim instructor of the year, with Neville Phillips winning the administrator of the year category.
Nondlaleni Dlamini received the volunteer of the year honours, with Corfe’s coach Graham Hill, named as coach of the year in the junior athletes section.
Fellow Durban-based coach Alisdair Hatfield held off a strong challenge from the likes of national men’s water polo coach Vladimir Trninic and swim coaches in Igor Omeltchenko, Dean Price and Hill to claim the coach of the year award.
Somerset West-based swim star Jessica Pengelly (17), was named as the most promising athlete of the year, with SA and Western Province water polo captain Duncan Woods announced as the water polo player of the year.
Jenna Dreyer received the diver of the year award, with Shannon Crowder awarded the synchronised swimmer of the year honours.
Another Durbanite, Chad Ho, was a popular choice as open-water swimmer of the year with Shireen Shapiro collecting the disabled swimmer of the year award.
The 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay team of Sebastien Rousseau, Jasper Venter, Jean Basson and Darian Townsend, received the honour of best performance of the year, while media awards were made to David Isaacson (print journalist of the year), Billy Senaume (radio journalist of the year) and Thabiso Sithole (television journalist of the year).
Gideon Sam, Archie Markgraaff and Lois Bassett received lifetime achievement awards for their contribution to aquatics. – Sapa