Kelly Gunnell, a Grade 11 pupil at Holy Rosary School, has just returned from the Isle of Man where she took part in the IV Commonwealth Youth Games 2011. Youth, aged from 14 – 18, from 71 Commonwealth nations compete in these games. This was the 4th Youth Commonwealth Games, and was hosted in the Isle of Man, United Kingdom.
Kelly won a bronze in her 50 m breastroke, with a time of 32:20. She won silver in 100 breastroke, in a time of 108:26. Then onto the 200m breastroke, where she demonstrated her top world class performance, winning gold in a time of 225:22. Sam Willis, official writer at the games, was quoted as saying, “Gunnell demonstrated her immaculate efforts in the four-lap breast-stroke swim by submitting a time of 2 minutes and 25.22 seconds for the title of the event. Gunnell acquired second fastest qualification spot in the qualifying rounds to enter the final but her grueling efforts in the final round placed her on the top of podium for gold medal. Furthermore, Gunnell expressed contentment over her victory, while the winners collected their awards and accolades after the session ended. The crowd was impressed with the wonderful effort”.
Kelly has been swimming from the age of 7. She very quickly moved up CGA levels and starting swimming for her province at the age of 9. It was onwards and upwards form here, and she soon became one of the top breastroke swimmers in the country. In the last 18 months she has managed a very busy schedule of local and international competitions : she swam in Ireland in July 2010, where she medalled ; Brazil in October 2010, winning - amongst other medals – 1st place in the 200m breastroke; next was Zone VI Games in Swaziland, where she won 3 gold medals. In March this year, she took part in SA National Champs in Durban, once again winning numerous medals; in April she participated in the South African seniors in Port Elizabeth and then on to the highlight of her career so far – the Commonwealth Youth Games.
Kelly swims with the Mandeville Dolphins Club , with coach – Dean Price.
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