{"id":12140,"date":"2026-03-27T13:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=12140"},"modified":"2026-04-02T07:47:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T05:47:45","slug":"press-release-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=12140","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vegter Maharajh eyes comeback gold at National Artistic Swimming Champs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

27 March 2026 \u2013 South Africa\u2019s premier artistic swimmers are descending on Cape Town this weekend for the Bombela Concession Artistic Swimming National Championships, taking place from 29 March to 1 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the elite field is top-ranked athlete Xera Vegter Maharajh, who is looking to reclaim the title of national champion after missing last year\u2019s event with a concussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vegter Maharajh, who represented South Africa at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, has had a condensed preparation phase for this year’s event. Despite the tight turnaround, the 22-year-old remains confident as she prepares to compete in the Tech Solo, Tech Team, and Free Solo events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I started training again for this season at the end of January, so it has been quite a short preparation period,” she explained. “I was a bit stressed going into preparation, but overall training has been good and I feel ready for the national championships.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having struggled with a series of injuries and setbacks, Vegter Maharajh remains very much on the comeback trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was out of the water for nearly six months after Singapore doing rehab for my shoulder and recovering from a minor surgery. After that, I was excited to get back into training,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo far it\u2019s all gone smoothly. I feel a lot stronger this year after all the work I did for my shoulder… I\u2019m more positive about this year since last year was a lot more of a struggle,” added the Bachelor of Science student who is majoring in biochemistry, human anatomy and physiology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vegter-Maharaj\u2019s training has to be scheduled around her studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUsually I only train artistic swimming two to three times a week, so I try to include as many sessions of other training that fit into my schedule. I try to do gym sessions or normal swim sessions for at least an hour on the other days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for fitting in her studies, she explained: \u201cI try to take each week as a block and focus on finishing as much work as I can within that week, specifically. It helps me focus, stay flexible and get work done so that I can be mentally and physically present at training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vegter Maharaj\u2019s coach is the tournament director for the national championships, Sue Manners-Wood, who emphasised that while there is no Senior World Championships on the calendar this year, the domestic season remains a critical pathway for the country’s rising stars. With the 2026 World Aquatics Junior Artistic Swimming Championships set for Budapest, Hungary, this August, the Cape Town event will be the final step in qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis South African Championship serves as the final selection for this junior team. We have a very strong couple of duets who are contesting for that position as the top duet to compete at Budapest, and they are the Malan sisters [Jadi and Kenzie] from CGA, as well as Aurelia Pretorius and Rebecca Schenk from Western Cape Aquatics. All four of them have represented South Africa before, and they’re vying for the title of top junior duet in order to be able to go to Budapest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also several international athletes who will participate in Cape Town next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have three international competitors \u2013 one from Guinea, and then a duet from Canada,\u201d explained Manners-Wood. \u201cAnd their coach is a very famous man. He was one of the first mixed duets to ever compete at a world championship. His name is Robert Prevost, and he is going to perform at our competition on the last day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those wishing to attend the championships should contact Sue Manners-Wood at sue@manners.co.za<\/a> for further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– ENDS –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vegter Maharajh eyes comeback gold at National Artistic Swimming Champs 27 March 2026 \u2013 South Africa\u2019s premier artistic swimmers are descending on Cape Town this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12143,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140\/revisions\/12143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}