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/Day 2 Recap
- Results: Meet Mobile – Bombela SASC Swimming Champs (25m) PMBF 25
The penultimate night of racing unfolded at the 2025 South African Short Course Championships, with 18-year-old Jessica Thompson capturing another two victories.
The Cardinal Aquatics swimmer first topped the women’s 50m free podium, putting up a time of 24.19 as one of two sub-25-second performers.
Joining her under the barrier was 21-year-old Cailtin De Lange of TUKS who scored silver in 24.65. 20-year-old Anieke Helmand bagged the bronze in 25.47.
Thompson’s performance checked in as a big-time personal best, erasing her previous career-swiftest time of 24.72 from last year’s edition of this competition. In fact, her 24.19 time here fell just .05 outside the South African national record of 24.14 De Lange put on the books at the 2024 Short Course World Championships.
Next up for Thompson was the 100m back, where she nailed the gold with an outing of 58.34.
That beat the pack by well over a second, as Milla Drakopoulos was next to the wall in 59.94 and Tayla Jonker finished in third place in 1:00.92.
Thompson’s gold medal-worthy performance marked the teen’s first-ever foray under the 59-second barrier. Before this competition, her best-ever rested at the 59.31 notched last year.
On her 50m free clocking, Thompson stated, “I think in the 50, you don’t have time to think – that’s the beauty about the races. It’s more just trusting in your training and you can’t think about it – your body goes into autopilot.”
On racing the reigning national record holder, Thompson added, “Caitlin is such an incredible swimmer, especially in the sprint free event so swimming against her I knew I had to be on my best game, top form and it was really nice having her next to me so I could get that extra push.”
Lara van Niekerk raced in the women’s 50m breast where the reigning national record holder stopped the clock at 30.04 to get to the wall first.
Morgan Cope was rendered the silver medalist, courtesy of her 30.40, while De Lange landed on the podium again with a time of 31.34, good enough for bronze.
Coming off of illness, van Neikerk stated post-race, “I can just take this as a positive. It’s faster than I went at worlds last year, so it’s baby steps. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so we’re getting there.
“I’ve just got back to why I started swimming in the beginning and I’m really enjoying it again. I love going to training every day and at least I’m enjoying racing again. There was a stage last year where I was scared of racing, so it’s good. It means I’m improving as a person and I’m getting back there.”
Additional winners included Armand Landmann, capturing gold in the men’s 50m free in 22.09 and Chris Smith hitting 26.31 to take the men’s 50m breaststroke.
Quotes courtesy of the South African Swimming Federation.
UVA is going to have a lot of options for 4×50 fr at ncaa’s this year that translates to a 21.7 yd swim (I know the conversion isn’t the best but she is about 1.5s off of Gretchen’s scm world record and 1.5 sec off of Gretchen’s yard pb is around a 21.7). They have Claire with her 21.1 flat start, Bryn Greenwaldt with a 21.1 relay split and Sara Curtis with a 21.9 from the same relay. (Both should be much faster at end of season as Bryn only trained 3 days a week during summer and that was Sara’s first yard swim ever). They then also have Anna Moech with a 21.7 pb and has split several 21… Read more »
Gretchen is irreplaceable, but UVA is making every effort to do so. Though unlikely to displace any of the 7 you mentioned, Carly Novelline and Aimee Canny have both been 22.2 and Lala Ficken has been 22.4. For reference, NCAA winning relays splits: G Walsh 20.37, Curzan 21.18, Parker 21.56, Moesch 21.34.
I would say the 200fr relay will most likely be Curzan, (currently fastest best time of team by a lot), then Curtis and Greenwaldt (they have the most potential for improvement in yards and are already so fast this season) then probably either Moesch or Thomson unless someone else drops a lot of time.
What relay do you leave Claire off of? The 800?
UVA often goes all in for 4×200 at ACCs
lots of options Curzan, Canny, Gormsen, Moesh, Mintenko!
we will see where they are in February.
pull Curzan off for backstroke on MRs and sprint FRs at NCAAs,
and still left with strong 4×200
I wonder (especially if Bryn, Sara, and Anna are consistently 21-high flat or 21-low split) if this is the relay they’ll leave Claire off of. It’ll be a risk with Louisville looming but they might still be able to win, and putting Claire on the 800 free relay with Aimee, Madi, and Grimes/Hayes/someone else gives them a great shot to win that too.
“someone else” – Gormsen, Moesch
And Moesch was 5th in the 200 last year too 😭😭