Midmar Mile champion Chad Ho continued his local domination of distance swimming when he claimed top honours at the 2013 Swimming South Africa National Open Water Championships on the weekend.

In the women's races, Michelle Weber also made it a clean sweep as she powered to victory in both the 10km and 5km open water events.

The Championships, which took place over Saturday and Sunday, were held in near perfect conditions at the Elgin Grabouw Country Club, on the banks of the Eikenhof Dam, which is set in the beautiful Elgin apple-growing valley outside Grabouw in the Western Cape province.

10km title

The 22-year-old Ho, from KwaZulu-Natal, claimed the men's 14-and-over 10km open water title in a time of 1:56:00.44.

He comfortably beat his KZN team mate Troyden Prinsloo (1:58:13.24) into second, with and Western Cape swimmer Danie Marais (1:58:21.98) settling for third in a repeat of the order they finished in in the aQuelle Midmar Mile.

In the women's 14-and-over open water event, KwaZulu-Natal's Michelle Weber finished first in an excellent time of 2:10:33.87.

Her provincial teammates Clarice Le Roux, and Sasha-Lee Nordegen fought it out to the finish, with Le Roux (2:11:01.59) coming in second and Nordegen (2:11:05.45) third.

Sterling performances

On Sunday, Ho and Weber continued their sterling performances in their respective 5km open water races despite stiff competition from the rest of the field.

Ho (59:43:29.14) just pipped Marais (59:45:01 10) to the podium with Abdul-Malick Railoun (1:01:00.34) of Northern Tigers Swimming clinching third a few seconds behind the front two.

In the women's 14-and-over 5km open water event, Weber, the World Youth champion over the distance, took the honours in (1:01:04.59). Kyna Pereira (1:01:09.77) claimed second place and Carmen Le Roux finished third (1:01:14.76.)