SA Jews make splash at Midmar Mile

The Jewish community left its mark at this year’s Midmar Mile in Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, on 8 and 9 February, with Sylvia Zwick the oldest female swimmer, and 13-year-old Romy Smith winning a bronze medal. And that’s not all.

Zwick, 82, said she found the swim nice and easy. She finished with a time of 59 minutes, improving her time by two minutes on last year’s swim.

Zwick, who trains at Melrose Arch Gym three times a week, has been swimming since she was a child, and now always swims the Mile with her niece, Karen Jankelow.

“I do a lot of open water swimming, so Sylvia was encouraged by that to do Midmar,” Jankelow says. “I swim right next to her the whole way. It’s amazing. She’s a strong person, very fit. She walks and used to do spinning classes.”

Jankelow has loads of Midmar swims under her belt. At Midmar this year, the 52nd edition of the event, she swam the Charity Eight Mile for the Cancer Association of South Africa and completed three further Midmar Mile races, including the one with her aunt.

“The conditions the whole weekend were really nice,” Jankelow says. “A little bit of wind on Saturday, but Sunday was nice, overcast, and the water quite flat.”

Smith finished in third place to claim a bronze medal in the Under-13 girls Midmar Mile category, with a time of 23 minutes, 35 seconds. The race came down to an intriguing battle between the top three, who ended up with just five seconds separating each of them. Smith also placed fifth overall out of 1 195 female swimmers, including the 31-and-over women’s event, the winner being double gold Dutch Olympic medallist Sharon van Rouwendaal, who came in just three minutes ahead of Smith.

Smith’s oldest sister, Rachel, who matriculated at King David Linksfield last year and has now started studying medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, finished 15th overall out of 975 swimmers in the 14 to 30 women’s category with a time of 22 minutes, 33 seconds. Having finished tied for fifth place last year, Rachel achieved this year’s result despite not having done that much training and with very little race practice due to the fact that she was in matric.

Swimming in the same category was her 16-year-old sister, Gabriella, who finished 52nd in tough, choppy conditions as the wind and current picked up.

Breast cancer survivor Ian Ralph, 62, completed the 8 Mile swim on the Thursday and Friday (6 and 7 February) to raise money for PinkDrive, swimming four miles each day, before doing the one mile with his son, Daniel, 22, on the weekend.

“Nineteen years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Ralph recalls. “It was interesting. For every 1 000 women that got it at the time, one male was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I had two operations, chemotherapy, and other medication. I’ve been clear for quite a while now. At the time I was diagnosed, I wanted to do the Midmar, and I was quite fit, which made my chemo quite easy, more bearable than it would have been had I not been fit.”

Swimming made Ralph’s recovery easier. “I just love swimming. It’s therapeutic. I train at the Sydenham Swimming Pool and I do a lot of open water training at Prime View in Olifantsfontein.”

Ralph increased his swimming about a year ago, and completed the Robben Island swim in November 2024. He found the Midmar’s conditions to be lovely, not cold, and slightly choppy for about half an hour.

“I was comfortable in the swim. My navigation wasn’t good, so instead of the eight miles, I probably swam a bit more because I can’t swim straight, but I’m working on that. I’ll be doing the swim again next year for PinkDrive to raise awareness that men can also get breast cancer and should undergo checkups from time to time.”

Gary Furman swam with his daughter, Dani. “My dad definitely lowered the water levels by about two millimetres due to swallowing so much water,” Dani says. “When my dad got out of the water, he was wearing a ‘Bring Them Home’ necklace, and a bunch of King David students were chanting “Bring them home!” which was awesome as we were watching the men’s race waiting for the women’s one to start.”

King David Linksfield’s annual trip to Midmar was “particularly marvellous” this year, says the school’s Samantha Michau, who enthused about the school’s Marvel theme for this year’s tour.

Michau says the tour group of 37 teenagers and several staff members each recorded personal bests in the Mile, with notable performances from Alex Stonefield, who placed second in his age group; Dylan Bloch, a Central Gauteng Aquatics national open water swimmer; Ethan Lunt, an Eastern Gauteng Aquatics national open water swimmer; and the school’s own teachers, Nirit Mindel and Rabbi Ilan Raanan.