South Africas best, including Olympic Champion Chad le Clos and numerous other Olympians from among other places the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden and the USA participated in the Stellenbosch Grand Prix from 14-15 February.
It has been nearly 25 years since International swimming, of the calibre seen over the weekend in Stellenbosch has come to the Cape.
Sell-out crowds packed the relatively small venue to see these swimming icons in action.
"It has been barely a year since the new Olympic size 50m pool has been taken into use at Stellenbosch University but already it has been recognized as the best pool in South Africa and is not only much favoured among swimmers as a fantastic training venue but also as a fast racing pool," says Pierre de Roubaix, Head Coach: Maties Swimming.
Le Clos was at his best winning all four events he participated in including the 100 m Butterfly, 100 m Freesyle, 200 m backstroke and 50 m butterfly where the latest 15-year-old sensation from America pushed him hard towards his victory. The young American Michael Andrew has been touted as the new Michael Phelps while taking American age group swimming by storm breaking no less than 76 American age group records over the past couple of years.
Local Matie swimmers like Olympian Trudi Maree and SA Senior team swimmer Caitlin Kat were also on form winning the 50 m freestyle and 400 m Freestyle respectively.
The Matie relay team of Liam Fourie, Nico Spahn, Marli Jacobs and Trudi Maree was also victorius over the much favoured team from TUKS in the mixed 4x 100m Medlay relay as they set a new South African record in this event.
