NCAA Champion Matt Sates Entered In Nine Events For South African Championships

Retta Race
by Retta Race 3

April 02nd, 2022 News

2022 SOUTH AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (RSA)

  • Wednesday, April 6th – Monday, April 11th
  • Newton Park Swimming Pool, Gqeberha, South Africa
  • LCM (50m)
  • World Championships/Commonwealth Games Qualifier
  • Psychs

South Africa’s best talent will soon be taking to the Newton Park Swimming Pool in pursuit of spots on the World Championships and Commonwealth Games rosters.

The 2022 South African Championships span Wednesday, April 6th through Monday, April 11th, with women’s heats starting bright and early at 7:30 am while men’s heats begin at 11:00 am local. The combined finals sessions are slated to start at 6:00 pm local.

Among those slated to race is 2020 Olympic champion Tatjana Schoenmaker, the 24-year-old who cracked a new World Record en route to gold in the women’s 200m breaststroke in Tokyo. Schoenmaker clocked a massive 2:18.95 to top the podium in Tokyo, hitting the first-ever sub-2:19 time in history.

On the prospect of making another elite team, Schoenmaker says, “I’m very excited. It’s been a bit more tough than other years, just in the sense of getting back into things since everything has changed,” said Schoenmaker, whose life changed dramatically after claiming gold and silver at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.

“There are a lot of new responsibilities that came along the past eight months. But it’s been very exciting and I’m always up for the challenge.”

Schoenmaker admits she isn’t expected to race at the same national record-breaking form she was at last year’s edition of these. Comahmpionships, but she is seeking out a chance to put on a show nonetheless.

“I had never swum a PB at Nationals before – last year was the first time ever so I think that’s why you saw the shock on my face. Going into this Nationals there’s no expectation. I’m just focusing on my races. There are some fast girls, especially in the breaststroke. Kaylene [Corbett] and Lara [van Niekerk] are doing so well so I’m excited to see how they race. Not necessarily trying to beat each other – I think it’s just supporting each other to get into that team and then prove ourselves internationally,” added Schoenmaker.

Multi-Olympic medalist Chad Le Clos is also entered in the competition, battling his way back from bronchitis earlier this year.

“It’s been a great year of training. I’m managed to gather a group of youngsters to train with me in South Africa – mainly based out of Cape Town.

“I’ve swum a couple of local competitions before Nationals, but I’m on my fourth round of antibiotics. I have chronic sinusitis and I have to have surgery to get that fixed, so we’re hoping to get that done – hopefully after Commonwealths… It’s been really bad but other than that the training has been going excellently, really well.”

At 29 years old with already 17 medals to his credit, Le Clos has the possibility of becoming the most decorated athlete of all time at a Commonwealth Games. He needs to claim 2 more medals to surpass Australian shooter Phillip Adams who owns the record.

“I’ll hopefully qualify for a couple of races and then my goal is to become the most successful Commonwealth Games athlete in history come July.

“That’s a big goal of mine. I’m focusing very heavily on that. We’ve got the world champs before which will obviously be very important, but the Commonwealths is definitely my main focus.”

The University of Georgia Bulldog and newly-minted NCAA champion Matt Sates is also among the competitors entered in a monster program that includes 9 individual events. The versatile athlete is set to race the 50m/100m/200m fly, 50m/100m/200m/400m free, as well as the 200m and 400m IM.

Sates is the top seed across the 100m free (48.74), 200m free (1:46.11), 200m IM (1:57.60) and 400m IM (4:14.33) and has the potential to deal some major blows across these events and more at both the World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

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Erik
1 year ago

Anyone else read the first 6 words and their brain immediately finished the sentence with “transfer portal”?

swimmer3000
Reply to  Erik
1 year ago

no but I would have cried if that what it said

That Guy
1 year ago

For interest sake, by my last count there are also 3 other athletes entered, that also competed in individual events at NCAA 2022 champs.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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