Ellen Kleinsmidt riding high in confidence ahead of Lifesaving SA National Club Championships

Sport24, in partnership with DHL and Lifesaving SA, previews the athletes likely to make a splash in the surf or sizzle on the sand

Plettenberg Bay's Ellen Kleinsmidt will be riding the high of her achievements in 2021 and in the recent African Championships, as she looks towards the 2022 DHL Lifesaving South Africa National Club Championships in Gqeberha from 20-26 March.

Lifesaving started for Kleinsmidt nearly a decade ago and she credits her late father for all things related to Lifesaving.

"When I was younger, I used to see all the kids running in blue bikinis or blue costumes and I never really understood what they were doing," reflects Kleinsmidt.

"I still remember my father's words; 'Ek gaan jou eendag in skryf om 'n nipper te word'."

After becoming a nipper at 12 years old, Kleinsmidt went on to win gold in the beach sprints and flags every year, which has now been last seven years.

Kleinsmidt enters this year's LSA National Club Champs riding high on the confidence of a winner, having secured gold in the same tournament for both the beach flags and the sprints at the end of 2021 and most recently taking gold in Eqypt in the flags at the African Lifesaving Championships.

READ | South Africa pip hosts to win African Lifesaving Championship title in Egypt

The 19-year-old first represented South African Lifesaving internationally three years ago, at the 2019 International Surf rescue challenge, which took place in Durban, and - true to form - she placed in both the beach sprints and flags, coming third in the former and securing a second place in the latter.

Given the young age at which Kleinsmidt first represented South Africa on the global stage and her dominant display on the sand locally last year, one can only expect