Port Elizabeth swimmer Jordan Denyer broke the SA 13-year-old boys’ 50m breaststroke record during the Aquabear Gala at Newton Park Swimming Pool on Saturday.
Denyer, 13, finished in 31 seconds and 41 milliseconds, eclipsing top Durban swimmer Luca Holtzhausen’s mark of 31.49.
The Grey High grade 8 pupil, who is a member of the Infinity Swimming Academy, said he was very excited about his achievement.
“I was aiming to get a personal best to try and break the EP record – which I broke. But then my coach searched for the SA record and found out that I had broken that too,” he said.
“My main plan is to try to get to the Olympics and compete among the top breaststrokers in the world.
“But now I am trying to get PBs [personal bests] on all my breaststroke races.
“Next year I want to try and break another SA record for the same event.”
Denyer, who was crowned Junior Swimmer of the Year for NMB Aquatics in April, started swimming competitively when he was in grade 3 and plans to take up the sport as a career.
“What I enjoy most about swimming is the hard work that you have to put in – it just shows how much determination you have to put in to get what you want,” he said.
“I would love to take up swimming as a full-time career one day.
“I look up to Adam Peaty, the British swimmer, because he holds world records for every breaststroke event in the world.”
Denyer also plays soccer and water polo at school.
The swimmer’s trainer, Infinity Swimming Academy founder David Glover, actually broke the same record in the same event 23 years ago – but his glory only lasted a week.
“Not many people break the SA record from PE. It’s something that doesn’t happen often these days, especially with our province being quite small,” Glover said.
“It seems swimming is going from strength to strength here.
“Funny thing is, I held the exact same record 23 years ago in the exact same event – only his time at his age is a lot faster than mine.”
Glover said there were greater things to come from the swimmer in the future.
“He has lots of natural talent, is very strong and works very hard,” Glover said.
“He is very competitive and has that killer instinct.”