<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gallagher reaches first Olympic semifinal as swimming action gets underway in Paris<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 27 July 2024 \u2013 Erin Gallagher was the only South African in action on the first day of the swimming programme at the Olympic Games in Paris on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 25-year-old finished sixth in her 100m butterfly heat in the morning in a time of 57.80 seconds \u2013 quick enough to book her a place in her first ever Olympic semifinal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gallagher competed in both the 100m freestyle and butterfly at the last Olympics in Tokyo but didn\u2019t make it past the heats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking after booking her semifinal place in Paris, Gallagher reckoned: \u201cI don\u2019t remember being nervous. I think I\u2019ve prepared so much, there\u2019s nothing more I could have done in my preparation so I\u2019m very relaxed. I obviously swam a bit slower, but I think that\u2019s normal for a morning swim. I just didn\u2019t feel like I was racing at the Olympics. It was weird.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Returning in the evening for her semifinal, the Pretoria-based swimmer finished seventh in a time of 57.90 seconds, well off the African record time of 57.32 she set at the SA Championships in Gqeberha earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was really tough,\u201d said a devasted Gallagher afterwards. \u201cI know I\u2019m more capable than what I just swam and there are always going to be lessons learned. It would just be nice if I didn\u2019t have to learn them at the Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut it\u2019s better than what I did in Tokyo. I did everything that I possibly could and that\u2019s what I had tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt just felt like it\u2019s over so quickly. You don\u2019t really have much time to think. It\u2019s a big privilege to be here, but it\u2019s tough,\u201d added the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunday will see three more South Africans taking to the pool at La D\u00e9fense Arena in the French capital. Tatjana Smith kicks off her Olympic campaign in heat 4 of the 100m breaststroke \u2013 the event in which she won silver at the last Games in Tokyo. Her heat is scheduled for 11.36am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pieter Coetz\u00e9 will line up in heat 5 of the 100m backstroke at 11.54am, while Aimee Canny will take to the blocks in heat 4 of the 200m freestyle heats at 12.12pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Swimming South Africa is the governing body of aquatics in South Africa<\/p>\n\n\n\n – ENDS –<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gallagher reaches first Olympic semifinal as swimming action gets underway in Paris 27 July 2024 \u2013 Erin Gallagher was the only South African in action…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10217,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216\/revisions\/10217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}