Player number 50, Dirk Tromp has once again received another gold medal to add to his 18 gold medals achieved from various Clubs and International Tournaments.
This year’s Clubs marks the 20 consecutive Inter-Club Tournament that Dirk has played in.
Dirk started playing uwh in high school in Windhoek, Namibia in 1999 and played his first Inter-Club Tournament for Team Namibia in that same year. In 2000 and 2001 he played Clubs for Electrodive under SWD’s renowned Sue and Ken Walmsley.
2002 to 2008 Dirk played for Maties receiving his first podium bronze at Inter-Clubs in 2004 and has podiumed every year thereafter. After Maties, he played for Normal Air Club, Gauteng from 2009 to 2012.
In June of 2012, Dirk joined Cape Town Club, based in Long Street Swimming Bathes and continues to represent them.
Not only has Dirk had huge success at Inter-Clubs and Inter Provincials (Senior Nationals); he first represented South Africa in 2006 in Sheffield and has played in every CMAS World Championship for RSA since then. He has 5 World Gold Medals, one of which is a European CMAS Gold. In 2018, as no Elite Team represented RSA, Dirk played for the Master Team, bringing home a silver from Canada.
Dirk has played 98 international games wearing the Green and Gold.
A new format of uwh was introduced onto the RSA circuit, namely 3 vs, which formed part of the Arnold Games in 2018. Needless to say, Dirk not only supported this amazing event, but played for the winning teams in both years, 2018 and 2019.
When asked what his proudest moment in underwater hockey was his response was, “is every time I get to play in a final, no matter the tournament… it’s always an honour…”
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dirk for his dedication to the sport, his support of underwater hockey tours and tournaments and his wonderful underwater hockey achievements.