To that end he has sent 12 Swimmers from the Academy under the watchful eye of Christophe Frivet to the HPC at the Pretoria University where his group will have full access to all the supplement services available at the world-class facility. The group range from 12-15 years in age and are training at the HPC for just under 3 weeks.

Christophe’s swimmers have partly fallen in with Rocco Meiring’s squad, but as they are preparing for the National Championships from 19-21 December, their training cycle is a bit different to the HPC Swim squad under Rocco Meiring who is currently in a tapering phase with his swimmers.

“Because we are preparing for the National Championships from 19-21 December, we train hard in the morning and then do the tapering sessions with Rocco in the afternoon. It has been an incredible learning experience for me. We do have a Academy in place, but do not have the facilities on offer here so we will definitely be returning,” says Christophe. “Also seeing how the HPC work out their training programs has been an interesting learnig curve me.”

His Swimmers were entered by Tuks at the recent NTS Swimming Championships and Christophe is quite happy with his Swimmers. “They did well. We are on the right track in our preparations for the Nationals. Being able to compete before the Nationals gives us a very good idea where we are. Having my squad swim with Rocco’s group has shown them what it takes to make it, especially the kind of attitude necessary to get to the top. ”

The Academy has strict criteria for entry, much like the Tuks Sport School. Performance both in the sporting environment and academically are expected.

This is very much new territory for Christophe and Academy. “We are pioneers in what we are doing. We do have the pool but lack so much compared to what is on offer here at the HPC. So it was good to come here and see how a facility should be and that is what we want to work towards. Our big goal are the Indian Ocean Games in 2011 and 2015. So we are looking to get an exchange program going with the HPC and the Academy.”

The Academy is certainly in its infancy, having been formed in November of 2007 and is the brainchild of Michael Glover, the former Sports Minister of Mauritius. His strong ties to France do help in the development of Sport as he has secured some of the top clubs in France to compete at the International Meeting of the Indian Ocean, including the Olympic 100m Freestyle Champion, Alain Bernard.