Van Niekerk, Canny, Coetze Qualify For Budapest World Championships

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
• Live results on Meet Mobile: “SA National Aquatic SNR-JNR Champ 2022-PE”
• Livestream

After roaring her way to a new world #1 time in the women’s 50m breaststroke this morning in the heats, Lara Van Niekerk added just slightly to her time in tonight’s finals.

Landing lane 4 with a globe-leading 29.72, the 18-year-old ultimately stopped the clock in a mark of 30.60 to grab the gold. Behind her were 200m breaststroke world record holder and Olympic champion Tatjana Schoenmaker who hit 30.87 while Kaylene Corbett rounded out the top 3 in 31.94.

The FINA ‘A’ cut for Budapest in this women’s 50m breast rests at 32.31, meaning both the top 2 finishers made the grade tonight.

On her performances, Van Niekerk said, “I expected to PB [personal best] because my times have been really good in training.

“Unfortunately tonight I wanted to go faster but I messed up my start a bit. I didn’t catch my hand at the start so I literally went in in ‘Superman’ position so I came up really far behind. But it happens – rather here than the international stage so I’m happy with the morning swim.”

Another Olympian in Chad Le Clos was in the water, with the versatile multi-medalist taking on the 50m fly. After punching a prelims effort of 24.18, 29-year-old Le Clos touched in a time of 23.93 to get the job done this evening.

Le Clos hit the only sub-24 second time of the field, with 17-year-old Olympian Pieter Coetze not too far behind in 24.14 while 500y NCAA champion Matt Sates also landed on the podium in this sprint in a time of 24.28.

For points of reference, Le Clos represents the 2nd fastest man ever in the 50m fly event from South Africa, owning a lifetime best of 23.23 from 2015. As for Coetze and Sates, they, too, have been under 24-, with the former having logged 23.45 in 2018 while the latter posted 23.93 in May of last year.

The FINA ‘A’ cut for men’s 50m fly sits at 23.63, which means none of the men outright hit that standard during tonight’s final.

Sates also tried the 400m free on for size, grabbing the gold in a mark of 3:49.37. That checks in as a new lifetime best for the 18-year-old obliterating the 3:59.15 he put on the books in 2019.

FINA set the ‘A’ standard at 3:48.15 which means Sates fell short in this event; however, he has 7 more events to go.

Coetze was also in the men’s 100m backstroke race, punching a time of 53.96 in the morning followed by 54.08 in the final. He was able to nab a FINA World Championships qualifying regardless.

“I got the qualifying time this morning so the pressure was off.

“The 50 fly was quite close to the 100 back so I felt it at the end there. I didn’t have time to do a swim down after the fly, so I definitely felt the burn. I felt comfortable going out but the backend is important, so I think that was lacking a bit. But the pressure was off so I was happy with that,” he added.

Rebecca Meder topped the women’s 400m IM field in a time of 4:49.04 while Aimee Canny clocked the only sub-2:00 time of the 200m free field. Canny put up a winning effort of 1:58.34, getting inside the FINA ‘A’ cut of 1:58.66. Her time here falls just shy of her own lifetime best of 1:58.41 from the 2020 Olympic Games.

“I was hoping to do it. We’ve been doing a lot of pace in training so I’m very happy with that,” Canny said afterward. “I kind of died at the end but I think I went out a bit hard so I’m happy. I surprisingly held on for longer than I thought I would.

“I did a similar time at the Olympics so I’m glad to know I’m back where I was and the training has paid off.”

South African Qualifiers Through Day 1

• Pieter Coetze – men’s 100m back
• Lara van Niekerk – women’s 50m breast
• Tatjana Schoenmaker – women’s 50m breast
• Aimee Canny – women’s 200m free