{"id":10340,"date":"2024-09-27T07:21:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T05:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10340"},"modified":"2024-09-27T07:21:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T05:21:56","slug":"le-clos-meder-and-van-renen-first-to-qualify-for-world-short-course-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10340","title":{"rendered":"Le Clos, Meder and Van Renen first to qualify for World Short Course Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Le Clos, Meder and Van Renen first to qualify for World Short Course Championships<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

26 September 2024 \u2013 Both Chad le Clos and Rebecca Meder achieved world championship qualifying times in two events on the opening day of the SA Short Course Championships in Durban on Thursday, with Ruard van Renen also adding his name to the mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Clos was pushed all the way in the 100m freestyle final and was relieved to claim victory ahead of Van Renen in a time of 46.91 seconds with the US-based swimmer, who is 11 years his junior, finishing second in 47.02 \u2013 also below the qualifying time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy. I was really nervous,\u201d admitted Le Clos afterwards. \u201cI\u2019m always nervous for the first race. I knew Ruard was going to be good and he was right there with me\u2026 I said a little prayer like I always do on the last 10m and I was very fortunate to get my hand on the wall first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut he was the MVP tonight with his performance. He was very, very good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Renen was thrilled with his efforts, saying he thought he might have edged out the veteran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI definitely thought I had in him in those last five metres but I got out-touched, but I\u2019m still happy with the swim and happy the hard work has paid off,\u201d said the 21-year-old, pointing out this was his first A qualification time at senior level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Clos was back in the pool not long after for the final of the 50m butterfly, where the victory came a lot easier. The 32-year-old touched in 22.40 seconds for his second qualifier of the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was faster than I thought in both races if I\u2019m honest\u2026 so let\u2019s see how we go in the 100 and 200m fly. \u2013 obviously my main two events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Meder sprung a surprise by claiming victory in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:05.82 that saw her qualifying for December\u2019s World Short Course Championships in Budapest in an event that\u2019s not her speciality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 22-year-old dominated the race to finish ahead of Lara van Niekerk, who was second in 1:07.55. Van Niekerk was making her first return to competition after two months out with a back injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meder was back in the pool for the last event of the evening\u2019s action, the 100m individual medley, which she won in a time of 59.03 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy. I think everyone was quite shocked with my breaststroke,\u201d said the two-time Olympian afterwards. \u201cI was nervous coming in\u2026 I said to my family today \u2018At the end of the day, I care so much, so it will show when I race. I just have to take that pressure off myself.\u2019 It\u2019s actually so nice to be quite calm before a race and really enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other winners on the night included Jessica Thompson whose 25.92-second victory in the 50m butterfly saw her just missing out on a qualifying time, and Caitlin de Lange who also just missed out in the 100m freestyle, finishing in a time of 54.16 seconds. She\u2019s now set her sights on qualifying in the 50m freestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming action continues at the Kings Park pool in Durban on Friday with the meet coming to an end on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PRESS RELEASE Le Clos, Meder and Van Renen first to qualify for World Short Course Championships 26 September 2024 \u2013 Both Chad le Clos and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"closed","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\/10340"}],"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=10340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10341,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10340\/revisions\/10341"}],"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=10340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}