{"id":10621,"date":"2024-12-11T07:01:53","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T05:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10621"},"modified":"2024-12-11T07:02:50","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T05:02:50","slug":"press-release-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10621","title":{"rendered":"Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

SA\u2019s Meder shatters long-standing African record as Van Renen reaches final on opening night in Budapest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10 December 2024 \u2013 Rebecca Meder took over half a second off Zimbabwean Olympic great Kirsty Coventry\u2019s African 200m individual medley record on the opening night of the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having qualified as the fourth fastest swimmer in the morning heats in a new South African record of 2:06.15, Meder went even better in the evening final, smashing Coventry\u2019s mark on her way to sixth place in 2:05.61.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous record of 2:06.13 had stood for over 16 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meder admitted afterwards that while she was targeting the record, it still came as a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew I had a 2:06 in me. 2:05 was a big surprise,\u201d she said. \u201cI was obviously aiming for that African record and have for a while. I mean Kirsty Coventry is a legend in the medley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good start to the week, it\u2019s not over. So I have to put that one behind me \u2013 as stoked and happy as I am \u2013 and focus on the 100 breaststroke tomorrow, then the 100IM and 200 breaststroke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meder\u2019s race was won by American Kate Douglass in a new world record of 2:01.63.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later in the evening, Ruard van Renen led through the 75m mark of his 100m backstroke semifinal, but eventually finished in fourth place. His time of 49.89 seconds was quick enough to see him safely through to Wednesday\u2019s final as the sixth-fastest swimmer of the night. Van Renen was slightly quicker in the morning heats, dipping under 50 seconds for the first time in 49.73.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m super-stoked. Definitely, when I touched the wall at the end, I thought I was definitely out. I didn\u2019t go the time I wanted to, it wasn\u2019t a perfect swim, but I\u2019m just happy I got there in the end,\u201d said an elated Van Renen afterwards. As for competing in his first major international final, the 21-year-old added: \u201cI\u2019m super excited to race with the big guys and push myself to the absolute limit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former South African swimmer Neil Versfeld who now coaches Van Renen at the University of Georgia in the USA, reckoned: \u201cIt\u2019s anyone\u2019s game trying to push for a medal tomorrow night, so he\u2019s excited, I\u2019m excited, it should be a fun one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the day, Jessica Thompson missed out on a place in the 50m butterfly semifinals by just one hundredth of a second after finishing her heat in a personal best time of 25.73 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty happy for day one, first senior international competition, so I\u2019m quite happy that it\u2019s a PB even though it\u2019s by a little bit of a split,\u201d said the 17-year-old after finishing 17th<\/sup> overall with just the top 16 progressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMissing the semi is quite a hard pill to swallow, but I still have the 50 back coming up so I\u2019m excited about that and hopefully that will go well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson swam in the race directly after American Gretchen Walsh stormed to victory in her 50m butterfly heat in a new world record time of 24.02 seconds. She then improved that mark to 23.94 seconds in the evening semifinals \u2013 one of five individual world records broken in total on the opening day of competition in Budapest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Hannah Robertson finished 28th<\/sup> overall in the 400m freestyle in a time of 4:12.77 while 18-year-old Milla Drakopoulos was 26th<\/sup> in the 100m backstroke in 59.33 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17-year-old Kris Mihaylov, who recently broke Ryk Neethling\u2019s national 800m freestyle record, finished the 1500m freestyle in 14:52.53 to place 15th<\/sup> overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a pretty comfortable race,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cI\u2019m hopefully aiming to go a bit faster at a later stage, but for now it\u2019s pretty good and I\u2019m looking forward to the 800.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chad le Clos was 22nd<\/sup> overall in the 50m butterfly \u2013 not one of his main events \u2013 in a time of 22.67 seconds while Kian Keylock was 35th<\/sup> overall in the 200m individual medley in 1:59.69.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming action resumes in Budapest on Wednesday and continues until Sunday, 15 December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PRESS RELEASE SA\u2019s Meder shatters long-standing African record as Van Renen reaches final on opening night in Budapest 10 December 2024 \u2013 Rebecca Meder took…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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\/10621"}],"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=10621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10622,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621\/revisions\/10622"}],"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=10621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}