Somewhere in the world a swimmer in putting in the time and focus and energy on becoming the best they can become, let us create a culture, that these swimmers that are spoken about are ours, The
TUKSSwimmers.

This holiday period has seen the greatest event on African soil taking place with the 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament being a huge success. The excitement on pool deck shown by our swimmers as they share which teams they are supporting, great plays, awesome goals once again highlighted to me the significance that sport can and does play in many's lives.

Despite all of this hype and emotion our swimmers are coming to the end of completing a great 4 week block of training. For our senior swimmers this culminates in the end of this 1st training cycle for the 2010/2011 swimming season with the Telkom SA Short Course Nationals taking place from the 6-9 August in Pietermaritzburg (so watch this space for updates on how they do!)

For many this winter time of the year is seen as a quite time for swimming. This however is not always the case and behind the scenes many things have been happening where our swimmers have been involved in.

We have had Roland Schoeman training and competing in Marseille in France and competing in the Mare Nostrum series in Europe as part of his preparation for a very full last 6 months of this year with SA Short Course champs, Pan Pac', Commonwealth Games, FINA/ARENA World Cup series and ending with the FINA World Short Course Championships in Dubai in December. Many other swimmers have been included in provisional teams and squads for this season and we have received notification of this over the last period of time.

This include the following list of competitions and swimmers:

International Competitions & TuksSwimmers

• IPC World Champs, August 2010 (provisional squad) - Emily Gray

• World Champs Open water - Tyron Venter

• 1st Youth Olympics, Singapore, August 2010 - Natasha De Vos (South Africa), Mercedes Milner
(Zambia), Quinton Delie (Namibia), Steven Ball (Namibia, Coach).

• Africa Champs, Kenya, September 2010 - Boris Kulikowskis (Namibia), Quinton Delie (Namibia). No other countries have yet announced teams however we expect to have swimmers in the teams for South Africa, Zambia & Kenya as well.

• Commonwealth Games, Deli India, October 2010 - Roland Schoeman (South Africa). No other countries have yet announced final teams. We stand a chance of having a few other swimmers in teams from other African countries.

• Zone VI Regional games, Swaziland, December 2010 - Aelke VD Venter (South Africa), Nico Meyer
(South Africa), Boris Kulikowski (Namibia).

• World Short Course Championships, Dubai, December 2010 - Kirsten Lapham (Zimbabwe). No other
countries have yet announced teams however we expect to have swimmers in the teams.

Local Competitions - July to December

Local competitions will start in NTS the end of August, with the first NTS League / Age group gala taking
place the end of August.

These galas will then be once a month with the year culminating in the NTS Povincial championships, possibly the first weekend in December (as per usual). Our senior swimmers will be heading off to SA Short Course from the 6-9th August (as mentioned above) and here we will be show casing a team of 36 swimmers. Some of out other swimmers, whom also qualified will however not be able to take part due to school exams and matric responsibilities.

We wish this team well as they go as a new TuksSwimming squad. It will also be the first opportunity for some of our newly joined TuksSwimmers to howcase their strokes as part of Tuks.

This will include the likes of :

⇒ Gerhard Zandberg (Olympian, World hampion and 10 year National Champion);

⇒ Vanessa Mohr (Senior National Champion at the SA Nationals 010);

⇒ Megan Scott (Senior National Finalist & national representative);

⇒ Werner Bosman and Vaughn De ager (both regulars on a senior national final level).

These, to name just a few, will compete alongside TuksSwimming stalwarts, such as Roland Schoeman (who needs no introduction), William Diering (2008 eijing Olympian & World Short Course medalist), Karin Prinsloo (national swimmer & title holder), Kirsten apham (Zimbawean National Swimmer) Jason Lawson, Jurie Wilken and Marius Hattingh (all senior ational finalists), Dirk Lambrechts and Nico Meyer (top Age Group national swimmers and on the brink of edaling in Senior Competitions) to name just a few.

Swimming South Africa's Squads system

Recently Swimming South Africa has decided to identify swimmers into various squad programs, to
hopefully fast track these swimmers through the program. We are pleased to have a number of
TuksSwimmers in the various squads.

These squads are in accordance with the SWIM SA long term athlete development plan they recently submitted and worked out in line with the expectations with SASCOC. These are identified swimmers, and by being included in these squads, it unfortunately does not mean they will be selected for specific teams or events. Our congratualtions goes out to the following TuksSwimmers whom have been identified. They are:

• Tier 1: Roland Schoeman;

• Tier 2: Gerhard Zandberg, Karin Prinsloo, Darren Murray;

• Tier 3: Nico Meyer, Dirk Lambrechts, Vanessa Mohr, Natasha De Vos;

• Tier 4: Lizani Bester & Marlies Ross.

Swimming SA Competitions

• Level 1 regional competition - Hosted by CGA & held in Johannesburg;

• Level 2 Regional competition - Hosted by NTS & held in Pretoria;

• Level 3 National competition - Hosted by KZN & held at Kingspark, Durban;

• SA Nationals and Youth Nationals - Hosted by EP and held in Port Elizabeth.