{"id":10332,"date":"2024-09-25T13:42:13","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T11:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10332"},"modified":"2024-09-25T13:42:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T11:42:15","slug":"fit-again-le-clos-and-van-niekerk-return-targeting-world-short-course-champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10332","title":{"rendered":"Fit-again Le Clos and Van Niekerk return, targeting world short course champs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PRESS RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fit-again Le Clos and Van Niekerk return, targeting world short course champs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

25 September 2024 \u2013 Both Chad le Clos and Lara van Niekerk will return to competition after injury layoffs at this week\u2019s SA Short Course Championships at Kings Park Pool in Durban from 26-29 September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event will give swimmers the chance to qualify for the World Short Course Championships which will take place in Budapest, Hungary from 10-15 December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Niekerk is returning after two months out with a back injury and apart from her usual 50 and 100m breaststroke events, has also been entered into the 200m breaststroke, the 100m butterfly and the 100m individual medley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-time Commonwealth Games champion described herself as \u201caround 90 per cent\u201d ready for the competition. \u201cI was off for two months due to a back injury that I picked up racing overseas so I\u2019ve been back in the pool for about six weeks now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTraining has been a bit up and down, trying to get back into it and back into shape. Obviously being off for that long is not ideal but we make do with what we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going with the mindset of enjoying it and going out there and racing again. It\u2019s my first competition since May so it\u2019s just going to be a fun one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21-year-old added that she and her team will make a decision on the World Short Course Championships after seeing the results over the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDepending on how the gala goes, in the next few weeks of training, we will make the call on whether I\u2019ll go to World Short Course or not but I would love to go. I\u2019ve always loved short course but it all depends on how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also making a return to action will be Le Clos, who suffered a shoulder injury just a few weeks before the Olympic Games in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2012 Olympic champion has entered the 50, 100 and 200m butterfly as well as the 50 and 100m freestyle in Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThings are going really good. My shoulder is great, I\u2019m really, really happy,\u201d said the 32-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took me a long time, three and a half weeks of not doing anything and the rest really did me amazing wonders\u2026 I\u2019ve been starting with a rehab programme for a while now. I\u2019m on week five already with that and I\u2019ve started the gym programme to go with it to help strengthen up all those areas that I\u2019m lacking in so I\u2019m very happy with the progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Clos added that while his recovery is going well, he\u2019s still not entirely fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely not 1000 per cent fit so I\u2019m not looking to go world records this weekend but I am looking to hopefully pick up a couple of wins and post one or two decent times so I\u2019m very, very excited actually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 12-time World Short Course champion has set his sights on bettering American Ryan Lochte\u2019s record tally of medals won in individual events at the World Short Championships which stands on 23. Le Clos\u2019s current total is 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously December is very important,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully I can pick up another medal or two \u2013 that would be unbelievable\u2026 so I\u2019m very, very excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in action in Durban this week will be fellow Olympians Matthew Sates and Rebecca Meder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sates has been entered into an incredible nine events, while Meder is down to swim six individual events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe time after the Olympic Game went really quickly. It\u2019s crazy to think that it was just short of two months ago that I raced,\u201d explained Meder who went to visit family in Belgium after the Paris Games before returning to training. \u201cI probably didn\u2019t have as long of a break as other swimmers but I had enough time. I told Graham [Hill] I was ready to get back in. I\u2019ve got short course trials coming up and I want to swim really well there with the intention of getting solid times so I can go to World Short Course in December.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming at the Kings Park Pool gets underway with the first day\u2019s heats at 8.30am on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– ENDS –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE Fit-again Le Clos and Van Niekerk return, targeting world short course champs 25 September 2024 \u2013 Both Chad le Clos and Lara van…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332"}],"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=10332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10333,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10332\/revisions\/10333"}],"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=10332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}