The love of a real challenge led to the 17-year-old Tuks swimmer Ruan Breytenbach winning the 1500m and 3000m men's races during the recent Sun City Open Water-event.

It is not the first time that he did so. A few years back when still under-13, he also achieved the unique double. This time, however, is more special, as the conditions were according to him challenging. He was also competing against physically stronger and more experienced swimmers.

"Normally competing over 3000 metres is not a big deal to me but we could not warm-up beforehand because of rain and lightning. It meant my muscles only started to loosen while I was racing.

"The water level was also lower than usual. It made things quite tricky. I got entangled in the waterweed. At times it was so bad that I had to stop swimming to get rid myself of the plants sticking to me."

It is not as if Breytenbach wants to brag but according to him winning the 1500 metres a few hours later was a breeze.  

Although Breytenbach enjoys the challenge of open water swimming that is not his focus, at least not for now. His ultimate dream is to represent South Africa at the Olympic Games. 

Earlier this year he got to compete at the World Junior Championships for the first time. He managed to set personal best in the 800m and 1500m freestyle events in Budapest. Doing so was a huge confidence booster. 

His most significant breakthrough, according to the Tuks swimmer during the World Championships, was learning to control his nerves when competing against the best. 

"I had the shakes during my first race. Needless to say, things did not go as I have hoped. I was much calmer for my second race, the 800m-freestyle, which led to me improving on my best time by five seconds."

Breytenbach fully realises it is going to be a long shot, but that is not going to stop him from trying to swim the B-qualifying standards for the Tokyo Olympic Games next year. 

"It is a personal challenge I have set myself. Even if I should swim the times, I realise the chance of me being selected to compete in Tokyo is slim." 

The 200m-butterfly and the 800m-freestyle is possible the two events in which Breytenbach has a realistic chance to achieve the B-qualifying standard. In the freestyle, he has only to swim three seconds faster and in the butterfly about two seconds. 

Breytenbach has a soft spot when it comes to the 200m-butterfly. 

"I have heard people say it is the 'toughest' swimming event. I can vouch for it. Every time I swam a good race, you get a sense of achievement.

"In the end, however, I think the 400m individual medley might become my signature race. For that to happen, I got to improve on my backstroke."