Sates & Meder Add Names To South African Roster For Singapore

2025 SOUTH AFRICAN SENIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, April 9th – Sunday, April 13th
• Newton Park Swimming Pool, Gqeberha, South Africa
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheet
• Results

The 2025 South African Senior National Championships continued from Gqeberha with Olympic finalist Pieter Coetze clocking another World Championships-worthy time.

After reaping gold last night in the men’s 100m back in a time of 52.71, 20-year-old Coetze doubled up with a victory in the 50m back in a result of 24.78.

Coetze’s effort cleared the field by over a second en route to comfortably dipping under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 25.11 needed for Singapore. The University of Pretoria star was actually quicker in the prelim, logging a time of 24.56 to rank #3 in the world this season.

Matt Sates also added his name to the South African World Championships roster, courtesy of the 1:58.83 mark he put up to take the men’s 200m IM.

His result was within striking distance of his lifetime best of 1:57.43, a benchmark he established in 2022.

“It’s nice going close to my best times again,” said Sates after his race. “A nice relief to do it, to qualify for worlds is always nice, because it’s every swimmer’s goal to do it, and so it’s a privilege to go.”

The 21-year-old also won the 200m fly this evening, registering a time of 1:57.71 for the gold.

That gave him the win over rising 17-year-old Kris Mihaylov who notched a new lifetime best of 1:58.18 as the only other sub-2:00 swimmer of the field.

Finally, Olympian Rebecca Meder also made the Singapore grade en route to taking the women’s 200m IM.

22-year-old Meder touched in a time of 2:10.39 to defeat her competitors by over 5 seconds as she earned a new national record. Her result overtook her own previous South African standard of 2:11.39 she turned in at the 2023 edition of these championships.

Post-race, Meder commented, “I will say I’m very surprised with a 2:10.3. We thought at least the 2:11 low, maybe sneak in a 2:10 high, but to break my own SA record and to go a 2:10.3 is mind blowing, so I’m really happy with that.”

Quotes courtesy of Swimming South Africa.