Daniel Ronaldson and Ryan Clark receive the trophy from DHS Headmaster
Tuesday 18 February saw the top boys’ schools in KZN gathered at Kings Park Swimming Pool to decide which school would become the 2014 KZN Champions.
Westville as the current holders and having won it 6 years in a row, were certainly the odds on favourites to win the title again. Galas earlier in the season had, however, shown that the National Swimming Champions were not going to have it all their own way.
Certain KZN schools have upped their game in the last year, encouraged no doubt by Westville’s Chad Le Clos and his achievements at the London Olympics.
The gala started with the Under 14 Freestyle Relay which was promptly won by Glenwood and which must have sent alarm bells ringing in the Westville camp. The reigning champions then settled down to win the other four age group Freestyle relays with Glenwood, Clifton and Hilton fighting it out for second places.
It was business as usual in the backstroke and butterfly races for Westville where they showed that they were still the masters of these swimming strokes. The Westville swimmers almost had a clean sweep in the Medley Relays, but were pipped by Clifton in the Under17 event.
Westville capped off another successful Championship gala by winning the final event as well, the five age Freestyle Ladder Relay.
The only age group to win all their events on the evening was the Westville Under 19 Age group –spearheaded by Daniel Ronaldson, a recent silver medallist at the 5 Nations International Swimming Championships in Australia.
A disqualification in the backstroke cost the WBHS a clean sweep in the Under 16 age group.
Final placings were as follows:
WBHS 191
Clifton 160
Glenwood 128
Kearsney 117
Hilton 113
College 97
DHS 62
Northwood 50