{"id":10342,"date":"2024-09-28T07:07:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T05:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10342"},"modified":"2024-09-28T07:08:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T05:08:12","slug":"teenage-duo-book-tickets-to-first-world-short-course-champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10342","title":{"rendered":"Teenage duo book tickets to first World Short Course champs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Teenage duo book tickets to first World Short Course champs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

27 September 2024 \u2013 16-year-old Kris Mihaylov and 17-year-old Jessica Thompson both added their names to the list of swimmers headed for the World Short Course Championships in Budapest later this year after swimming the required qualifying times in Durban on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mihaylov claimed victory in the 800m freestyle at the SA Short Course Championships at Kings Park pool in a time of 7 minutes 43.56 seconds, well under the qualifying time and four seconds clear of his nearest rival, while it was a slightly more roundabout route for Thompson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 17-year-old just missed out on the qualifying time in both the heats and final of the 50m butterfly on Thursday but returned on Friday to achieve it in a time trial in 25.76 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I was really nervous \u2013 a lot of people were watching so I think it was just a big deal proving to myself that all the hard work and training that has gone into it has all paid off\u2026 I just had to trust myself and give it a shot,\u201d said the Johannesburg swimmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explaining what she had changed from her previous swims, Thompson added: \u201cI just tried to take away a breath because I realised it was slowing me down a bit and my underwaters I\u2019ve been training a lot, so I took an extra kick off the turn and I\u2019m just so happy I executed that time, it\u2019s been a great day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later in the evening, Thompson added the 50m backstroke to her list of victories in Durban, winning in a time of 26.97 seconds, not far off the 26.54 needed for another qualifying time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mihaylov also claimed another title in the evening session, this time winning the 200m freestyle in 1:44.77.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, both Chad le Clos and Ruard van Renen continued to show their fine form at the championships. 21-year-old Van Renen added two more world championship qualifying times to his haul \u2013 in the 50m backstroke and the 100m butterfly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He admitted the backstroke, which he won in 23.31 seconds, had taken him by surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUsually the 50 I just swim for fun, I wasn\u2019t expecting any times,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of a primer race for tomorrow\u2019s 100 backstroke so swimming that time was ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 100 back is the main focus, that\u2019s what I flew in for,\u201d added the US-based rising star. \u201cAnything that I picked up before that is a bonus.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Renen\u2019s second qualifier of the night was in the 100m butterfly, where he was once again up against veteran Le Clos, who pipped him to the 100m freestyle title on Thursday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Clos took the win in 49.50 seconds, his third qualifying time of the championships, with his young challenger second in 50.24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter this morning I would have been happy with a 50-low or 49-high so I was delighted with the time,\u201d said Le Clos after the race. \u201cIt\u2019s about a second off what I won it in two years ago so I\u2019m very, very excited. But Ruard again, swimming 50.2… it\u2019s great for the future of our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Renen was full of praise for Le Clos, saying: \u201cI was just sticking next to Chad, sticking on his hip and he dragged me towards the end\u2026 Fly is Chad\u2019s baby so you can\u2019t really compare him to anything else\u2026 I know he wasn\u2019t expecting me so I hope I pushed him a little bit too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PRESS RELEASE Teenage duo book tickets to first World Short Course champs 27 September 2024 \u2013 16-year-old Kris Mihaylov and 17-year-old Jessica Thompson both added…<\/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\/10342"}],"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=10342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10343,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10342\/revisions\/10343"}],"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=10342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}