Lara Van Niekerk Breaks Her Own 50 Breast African Record For The Second Time In One Day

2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Top 8:

  1. Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) – 28.37
  2. Lilly King (USA) – 28.86
  3. Lara van Niekerk (RSA) – 29.27
  4. Tang Qianting (CHN) – 29.28
  5. Imogen Louis Clark (GBR) – 29.30
  6. Benedetta Pilato (ITA) – 29.42
  7. Anna Elendt (GER) – 29.52
  8. Veera Kivirinta (FIN) – 29.80

After lowering her own African record in prelims, South Africa’s Lara van Niekerk dropped more time in semifinals to break it yet again.

Van Niekerk, a 19-year-old, clocked a 29.27 in semis, which is a 0.18 second improvement from the 29.45 she posted in prelims. She also owned the record coming into the meet, which stood at 29.62 from August of this year. She first broke it in September of 2021, when she swam a 29.85 to take down Achieng Ajulu-Bushell’s record of 30.11 from 2009.

With her drop in semifinals, she has now broken into the All-Time Top 10 performers list for the event. She sits at 10th, just behind China’s Tang Quianting.

The final tomorrow night is set to have four of the top ten performers competing in it, including Ruta Meilutyte and Lilly King and who are 1st and 3rd all-time, respectively. Tang Quianting qualified in 4th, just a hundredth behind van Niekerk who took 3rd out of semis.

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