History

Natal, with Otto swimmers making up in excess of 80% of every squad, conquered all comers at every National Championships from 1966 to 1981 (except 1967 and 1980). The club was filled to capacity with swimmers that would have made most international teams proud. Seelan Nair and sister Dhivia, cousin Shireen, the Vayej brothers, Ismail and Ahmedy, Anita and brother Deon Vlotman, Ansari Adam, Venitha Jithoo, Alimarge Cavernelis, Annisvery and brother Cyril Kisten, Leeboy Bisset, Virend Singh, Saras Moodley, and a forever list of many others made the club great. A cursory look at the National Championships log tables, clearly show that Otto, as a club could have taken on any province in the country and still come out tops:

But even the best have to someday bow out, especially if it fails to plan for the future. Such was Otto's fate. Param Naidoo, the coach moved out of Durban. Most of the senior swimmers had departed to their tertiary studies and new jobs. The club, by not building a stable nursery had virtually sealed its fate - the dimming of a shining star was in sight. Sadly too the slow death of this proud club received no support from the then ASAN administration, whose interests in swimming were dubious at best. All internal attempts to curb this sad turn of events proved futile. By the 1982/3 season Otto had ceased to exist.

Fortunately, 1985 saw a revival of swimming in the province as a whole. Encouraged by this new confidence in ASAN, by January 1986, the old Otto loyalty brought together a band of ex-Otto swimmers, Shireen Nair, Saras Moodley and Rajen Naidoo, who together with Derrick Iyaloo (Asherville Pool superintendent) set about re-establishing the old Otto. In March of the same year, the club was launched with Siva Chetty as the new chairperson. With this core coaches, a new administration was ushered into office. Sylvia Vasar as secretary and Sunny Marimuthu as treasurer, and no more than seven swimmers Otto started on the long and rocky road to the top. The club experienced a massive membership boost in 1987/8 season. In the 1988 National Championships in Durban, Thanesh Marimuthu and Amitha Ramlall became the first new Otto swimmers to win provincial honours. It has been a long haul from there....

The darkest hour of our new club came a day after celebrating our "fifth" birthday. On 10 March 1991, fate claimed the life of our chairperson, Siva Chetty. The lifeblood, the driving force of the new Otto dealt a crushing blow to the club. It took a while for the club to recover from this blow, but in the true Otto spirit, a testimony to the committment of its membership, the club turned tragedy to triumph. It was those solid foundations laid down by Siva in the five years with the club that has led us to the successes we have today. In recollecting this history, we dedicate our current successes to this great hero of Otto.

The dominant club of the seventies had arrived once again, only the time had changed, it was now the nineties. This was a successful decade - one of the most successful seasons since the seventies, scooping all honours in the Natal Championships and Inter-club league and winning the National Inter-Club Age group League since 1993. Our swimmers set several Natal records, and form a large percentage of the KwaZulu-Natal team. Five swimmers won National colours at 1995 National Championships. In addition, this proud club does more than just produce great swimmers. We have over the years provided some of the leading officials to the provincial organisation. Names such as Charlie Bassa, who with great determination managed to salvage the financial situation of the parent body, Sunny Marimuthu, the omnipresent Chief Timekeeper are just a few that have provided leadership to the provincial unit. But then Otto has always produced more than its fair share of administrators - remember Morgan Naidoo, Vasi Nair, Dhama Nair and Adam Abdool - men who had given so much to non-racial swimming? Glance through their membership cards: all proud Otto members.

As the club entered the new century, it continued its slow, but methodical rise back to its former glory. In the 2000/1 season, 7 Otto swimmers were selected to the Level 1 Nationals, 1 to Level 2, and Karuna Marimuthu making it to the Junior Age Group Nationals (Level 4) – a significant achievement for a black swimmer. These numbers have been steadily increasing over the years, and Otto is now regularly represented at all the national championships, except Senior Nationals. Some names that have come up in lights include Kirsten Leigh Sankar, the not only the first Otto finalist at the Level 2 Nationals, but proudly, also, its first medalist. With the recent selection of Suvir Satyendra into the National Training Centre in Pretoria, participation of Otto swimmers at the most prestigious national tournament is only but a few years away.

In 2004 Otto celebrated its 40^th Anniversary – a remarkable milestone for a community based club. Under the leadership of men and women such as Della Rose Bassa, Lucky Satyendra, Dean Joseph, Cyril Singh the club enjoyed success under changing conditions of competition in the new South Africa. To reach elite levels, greater resources were necessary, and for a community based club, these were not always accessible. Despite this, the club continued to produce swimmers at the higher levels of national swimming

We have no doubt that we have yet to reach the pinnacle of success that the club enjoyed in the seventies, but with the determination of its swimmers and administrators, we will get there. We hope, that Otto be judged not by just its actions in the water but by its committment to developing the sport in all its manifestations and producing sportspeople of the highest calibre, remembered not just for their swimming prowess but for their dedication to the visions pioneered by those who built up their club and swimming in Natal......