{"id":3820,"date":"2017-02-22T20:12:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T18:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=3820"},"modified":"2017-02-22T20:12:38","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T18:12:38","slug":"de-jager-eyes-river-mile-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/de-jager-eyes-river-mile-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"De Jager eyes River Mile gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having been runner-up in the past two years, 17-year-old Amica de Jager is going for gold in the 93rd River Mile in Cannonville just outside Port Elizabeth this weekend.<\/p>\n

Part of the two-day SPAR Summer Festival, the feature men’s and women’s mile events will anchor Sunday’s programme in Africa’s oldest open water swimming event.<\/p>\n

Having twice been pipped at the post, De Jager is hoping to secure a first place this year.<\/p>\n

“I’ve come painfully close two years in a row so hopefully it will be third time lucky,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Amica de Jager will be aiming for her first gold in this year’s SPAR River Mile after placing second for the last two years. Photo: Michael Sheehan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her final year at Woodridge College, she is feeling confident as she has been training for the South African nationals in open water, pool and lifesaving – all of which take place over the next two months.<\/p>\n

The teenage star has had a successful season, having won the 5km and 10km Nelson Mandela Bay Aquatics Championship titles. She is also the 3km leader in the Aquelle Ocean Racing Series.<\/p>\n

De Jager has adopted a determined attitude towards the race and feels her achievements this season are evidence that she is good enough to win.<\/p>\n

Full of challenges, the River Mile is an event which keeps the swimmers on their toes, but De Jager felt this worked to her advantage.<\/p>\n

“In open water, everything is unpredictable. The weather, current and layout are always different and changing continuously.<\/p>\n

“I feel as though I can adapt to most situations and am motivated and determined. As an open water swimmer, you need to be adaptable and prepared for anything.<\/p>\n

“In open water, swimmers are constantly jostling, each fighting to get in the best position to win. Strategies and tactics are always at play.”<\/p>\n

Having represented South Africa at the lifesaving world championships, De Jager felt her hard work had paid off in achieving some of her goals.<\/p>\n

She added that she owed much to her coach, Haydn Holmes.<\/p>\n

“A previous winner of the River Mile, Haydn is my role model. He has helped me with every aspect of swimming and I hope that I can make him proud.<\/p>\n

“My goal is to finally win it to become part of the history surrounding this epic race.”<\/p>\n

Although defending champion Jess Canter is not swimming this year, De Jager said there would be several swimmers to watch, especially Kirsten Marriot.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the race, she said her strategy would be simple.<\/p>\n

“I want to put myself in the best possible position to win.”<\/p>\n

Apart from swimming, the festival, which starts on Saturday morning, will include mountain biking and fun run events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having been runner-up in the past two years, 17-year-old Amica de Jager is going for gold in the 93rd River Mile in Cannonville just outside Port Elizabeth this weekend. Part of the two-day SPAR Summer Festival, the feature men’s and women’s mile events will anchor Sunday’s programme in Africa’s oldest open water swimming event. Having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1836,2220,2289,1234,1776,2208,1898,2209,1874],"class_list":["post-3820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-amica-de-jager","tag-cannonville","tag-open-water-swimmer","tag-port-elizabeth","tag-port-elizabeth-news","tag-river-mile","tag-spar","tag-summer-festival","tag-swimming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}