{"id":12204,"date":"2026-04-16T15:56:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=12204"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:57:17","slug":"brammer-and-heydra-share-spoils-in-top-class-sa-diving-champs-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=12204","title":{"rendered":"Brammer and Heydra share spoils in top-class SA Diving Champs showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PRESS RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

16 April 2026 \u2013 Grace Brammer and Bailey Heydra emerged as the dominant forces at the Bombela Concession Company SA Diving Championships in Boksburg, going head-to-head across the springboard events and sharing the honours. Brammer claimed the 3m title with Heydra close behind, while Heydra turned the tables to secure gold in the 1m, with Brammer finishing second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US-based duo, who are both studying kinesiology, produced an exceptionally high standard of diving, with both scoring over 300 points in the 3m event. Also recently moved to the USA, Zalika Methula secured the bronze medal in both events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI came first in the 1m event last year. However, 3m is my preferred board, so it meant a lot to me this year,\u201d said a thrilled Brammer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 3m competition involved a preliminary, semi-final and final with cumulative scoring, and this format requires divers to remain consistent throughout. I achieved a 25-point lead in the preliminary, which helped calm my nerves and remain focused for the semi-final and final,\u201d added the 20-year-old Penn State University student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNationals is always a highlight of my year, and after competing in this competition for 10 years, I feel a sense of huge accomplishment to win against the country\u2019s top divers. I\u2019m already looking forward to coming back next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Heydra, who hadn\u2019t had the best build-up to the event after struggling with flu, this competition was particularly special because of the rivalry with Brammer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a really, really fun competition,\u201d she said. \u201cGrace and I were great competitors against each other and what\u2019s been absolutely awesome is having to fight against her for the titles dive-for-dive. Last year she won the 1m and I won the 3m, and this year it’s kind of flipped around, so I won the 1m and she won the 3m and honestly both of the events were absolutely spectacular events, so it was just a great time overall. I love fighting dive-for-dive, it kind of lights up a fire inside you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on the quality of the competition, the University of Nevada student added: \u201cTo be honest, I do not know the last time South Africa as a country had two divers scoring above 300 points in a 3m final. That’s a very good score, even on a world-class stage and I think it means that we\u2019re moving in the right direction as a sport, and hopefully we can get two berths for the next Olympic Games. That’s the goal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heydra was disappointed to have missed out on the 3m synchro event, where she was due to line up alongside Methula, with whom she competed at last year\u2019s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. The 22-year-old had to withdraw after the recurrence of a strained intercostal muscle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the men\u2019s events were contested by just two divers, with Anele Mthembu and Anathi Shozi sharing the titles between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PRESS RELEASE 16 April 2026 \u2013 Grace Brammer and Bailey Heydra emerged as the dominant forces at the Bombela Concession Company SA Diving Championships in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12204"}],"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=12204"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12207,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12204\/revisions\/12207"}],"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=12204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}