The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
RISING swimming star, Denilson Cyprianos has set his sights on the South Africa senior championships after raking in 11 gold medals and one silver medal during the Senior National Swimming Championships held in Bulawayo last weekend.
Cyprianos’ feat saw him totally dominate his age group with impressive performances.
The South African National Junior Age group will take place from 21 to 25 March in Durban.
Cyprianos will be taking part in five events and hopes to clinch a medal in any of the races.
He said performances at the national meet at the City Pool have given him confidence as he faces tougher opposition.
“Going into the senior national my focus was on coming out tops in my age group and I achieved that well. The performance is a confidence booster ahead of the South Africa juniors scheduled for next month.
“I will be targeting one medal from the five races that I will take part in,” he said.
Cyprianos, however, revealed his focus would be on meeting times for the Youth Olympics Games scheduled for Argentina later this year.
At the senior national last week, Cyprianos took gold in the 200m, 400m, 1500m freestyle events, 100m butterfly, 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, 400m individual medley and 200m breaststroke while coming second in the 100m freestyle.
The Christian Brothers’ College pupil has already made several swimming records this season and in December he participated in the KwaZulu Natal Premier Championships where he scooped three bronze medals in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke races.
Meanwhile Matabeleland’s Cory Werret (14) clinched the plate in the boys section with 118 points, one better than Cyprianos while in the ladies category, Paige Van der Westhuizen (15) exhibited she could be the next Kirsty Coventry as she dominated her age category coming out first in all the events she took part in raking in 110 points.
Mashonaland retained the aggregate trophy of the 2017 National Swimming Championships held at the City Pool.
Mashonaland dominated both the boys’ and girls’ swimming events to amass 2 957 points, while hosts Matabeleland were second with 2 074 points.
In distant third place were Mashonaland Country Districts with 190 points.
