Hungary’s Erika Hajnal took a step closer to her Olympic dream in winning the Midmar Mile title in a time of 20: 27 from Pinetown-based Melissa Corfe at the 35th Halfway Telkom Midmar Mile, near Howick on Sunday.
Corfe finished three seconds off the pace, while Melanie Greyling took third spot in 21:48. "I have been training hard in the swimming pool, as I work towards posting Olympic-qualifying times at the Telkom SA National Championships in Durban in April,"
"The big difference between pool and open water swimming is that there are no ropes or markers to keep a swimmer on a straight course in the dam," said Corfe, who has been among the first three finishers since 2001, having won the title in 2003.
"I started on the left and felt good going through the halfway mark, even though I wasn’t quite sure where the Hungarian was swimming, as she was out of my sight," explained Corfe. "But I drifted to the right hand side during the second half of the race which cost me some valuable time."
Race organisers confirmed that a total of 16100 swimmers took part in this year’s event.
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