Breytenbach Takes Double Open Water Titles At South African Nationals

2022 SOUTH AFRICAN OPEN WATER CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, March 4th – Sunday, March 6th
• Marina Martinique, Jeffreys Bay
• Open Water
• Results Pending

The 2022 South African Open Water Championships wrapped up from Jeffreys Bay today, with Pretoria’s Ruan Breytenbach coming away with two national titles.

The 20-year-old took the men’s 10k open water gold on Saturday, reaping his first-ever title in the event. After the race, the also-pool swimmer stated, “I wasn’t expecting much because it was my first 10km so I was just trying to stick with the group for the first couple of laps and then hopefully someone would try and break away mid-race, which happened luckily. So we just went from there and had a good ending.”

Breytenbach also snagged the 5k title on the final day just out-touching Durban’s Connor Buck.

With his performances, Breytenbach is now eligible for selection for the team to represent South Africa at the World Championships at the end of June.

Of that possibility, Breytenbach said, “I’m definitely excited. I’m going to have to change my training program now to prepare for that which I wasn’t planning on doing. If I do get selected and do well there, then I will probably do more open water.”