Le Clos Clocks Another Two Victories At South African SC Championships

2025 SOUTH AFRICAN SC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, September 25th – Sunday, September 28th
• Prelims at 8:30am local (2:30am ET)/Finals at 5:00pm (11am ET)
• GC Jolliffe Swimming Pool, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
• SCM (25m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Psych Sheet
• Day 1 Recap
• Results: Meet Mobile – Bombela SASC Swimming Champs (25m) PMBF 25

Day two of the 2025 South African Short Course Championships unfolded today, with the first national record being broken.

As we reported, 18-year-old Jessica Thompson fired off a time of 26.85 to win the women’s 50m backstroke.

That not only checked in as a lifetime best but it overwrote the former RSA national benchmark of 26.89 Chanelle Van Wyk put on the books during the 2009 supersuit era.

Additionally, Thompson’s effort tied Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry‘s African record of 26.85, which the now-International Olympic Committee president notched a year earlier at the 2008 World Championships.

You can read more about Thompson’s performance here.

33-year-old Olympic champion Chad le Clos was also in the water tonight, contesting two individual events.

Coming off nearly a year without competition to rehabilitate a back injury, le Clos raced in both the 50m back and the 100m fly, just minutes in between both races.

In the former, le Clos clocked a time of 23.62 to take the event by over a second.

Erik Kotze notched 24.72 as the silver medalist while Adrian Louw rounded out the podium in 25.44.

In the 1fly, le Clos grabbed gold in a time of 50.81, beating the pack by nearly two seconds.

The seasoned swim star opened in 23.80 and closed in 27.01 to get the job done.

18-year-old Tai Pearson was next to the wall in 52.62 followed by Jarden Eaton, who bagged the bronze in 52.97.

After his performances, le Clos told the South African Swimming Federation, “I feel great. I think the backstroke was the highlight… It’s weird, my backstroke and my freestyle were probably my better swims, not my butterflies.

“I want to try and keep going as long as I can and I think the 50s have given me a lot of life, especially short course. I know I will improve and I’ve got a lot of big things coming… I think I’m going to settle nicely into the new year, build towards April and then hopefully surprise everybody next year, that’s the plan.”

Additional Winners

• 23-year-old former Georgia Bulldog Dune Coetzee reaped gold in the women’s 200m free, notching 1:59.71 as the sole competitor under the 2:00 barrier.
• The men’s 200m free saw Matthew Caldwell get it done for gold in 1:49.01.
• Abigail Kotze got her hand on the wall first in the women’s 100m fly, although Coetzee was right behind in 1:00.88. Taneal Baptiste also landed on the podium in 1:00.97, good enough for bronze.