'Stallion' Johan Lourens ready to lead Tuks' charge at Lifesaving 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 at the 2022 DHL Lifesaving National Club Championships in Gqeberha from 20-26 March.

Johan Lourens lives and breathes lifesaving, both as an athlete and in his service to the community.

The charitable side of Lourens is obvious with his selfless commitment to the out of water aspects of lifesaving, but when it comes to Lourens the competitor, there is nothing charitable to those chasing him in the water.

Lourens is a winner and for the past five years he has been the most dominant male pool swimmer in South Africa and one of the leading men in world lifesaving.

Lourens, at the forefront of Tuks’ team victory in the Pool at the 2021 DHL National Club Lifesaving Championships, will again lead the charge from up north in the 2022 edition of nationals.

His mission will be to win each time he takes to the water, but the bigger picture is the World Championships in Italy in September.

Lourens has already achieved all the qualifying times and he was superb in last year’s national championships.

The odd time of the 2021 event, because of Covid 19 postponements, disrupted his yearly training schedule, but as he said at the time, everyone was put out by the delay from March to October, but the gratitude was greater than any grunting just because there was an event.

In 2022, there is a sense of normality, with the nationals back in its customary time slot and with nearly 1200 elite lifesaving athletes, from nippers to masters, competing from March 20-26th.

When it comes to senior pool events, the podium will become Lourens’s best friend for much of the week, given his track record and appetite for continued