2019 South African Short Course Championships
- Thursday, August 8th – Sunday, August 11th
- Durban, KZ
- SCM
- Results
South African swimmers were in the pool this weekend contesting the Short Course Championships in Durban, with both veterans and rising young swimmers in the mix of events over the 4-day competition.
24-year-old Ryan Coetzee came away with 3 titles on the meet, reaping golds across the 50m fly, 100m fly and 100m free this weekend. The former Tennessee Vol punched a result of 23.10 in the 50m fly, 51.83 in the 100m fly and 49.17 in the 100m free to stand atop the podium a trio of times.
Coetzee was a 2018 Short Course World Championships finalist in the former event, finishing in 8th place in the 50m fly final in a time of 22.88 in Hangzhou, China.
In Gwangju at this year’s LCM World Championships, Coetzee finished 36th out of the heats in the 50m fly (24.13) and 30th in the 100m fly (53.46).
Newly-signed New York Breaker Tayla Lovemore got her hands on the wall first a number of times, including winning the 50m fly event in a time of 26.10 to win by over a second. The 25-year-old owns the South African National Record in the event in her lifetime best of 25.54 from last year’s World Cup stop in Singapore.
Lovemore also grabbed gold in the 100m fly (58.77), the 50m back (27.82), as well as the 50m free (25.42). The talented South African was just short of making it a quintet of victories, settling for silver in the 50m breast in 31.60 behind 16-year-old winner Laura Van Niekerk‘s gold medal-worthy effort of 31.02.
Another teenager, Rebecca Meder, 17, made her mark on the meet with multiple wins, including a 4:14.74 podium-topper in the women’s 400m free. She collected 200m free gold in a time of 2:00.13, while also producing wins int he 100m IM and 100m free in marks of 1:02.22 and 56.64, respectively.
Meder now takes over the nation’s rankings in all the aforementioned events save the 100m free, where 15-year-old Aimee Canny clocked a time of 56.01 in July at a SC Gala in Eden.
Meder competed in Gwangju, finishing 30th in the 200m free (2:02.70) and 22nd in both the 200m and 400m IM events (2:15.96, 4:53.99).
