{"id":10801,"date":"2025-04-12T09:20:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T07:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10801"},"modified":"2025-04-12T09:21:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T07:21:15","slug":"womens-breaststroke-legacy-lives-on-as-meder-corbett-qualify-for-world-champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10801","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s breaststroke legacy lives on as Meder, Corbett qualify for World Champs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Women\u2019s breaststroke legacy lives on as Meder, Corbett qualify for world champs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11 April 2025 \u2013 The women\u2019s 200m breaststroke provided much excitement on the third night of competition at the SA National Swimming Championships in Gqeberha on Friday with two swimmers dipping under the qualification time for the World Championships in Singapore later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event has often provided the highlight of the national championships in recent years with four-time Olympic medallist Tatjana Smith dominating proceedings. The now-retired Smith would have been looking on with great interest as Rebecca Meder claimed the title in a time of 2:23.61 with Smith\u2019s former training partner, Kaylene Corbett, finishing second in 2:24.70 \u2013 also a qualifying time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meder, who is relatively new to the breaststroke events, was pleased to have had two-time Olympic finalist Corbett pushing her all the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know that Kaylene is such a good competitor. She\u2019s got so much experience in the 200 breast, so I know that at nationals she\u2019ll always perform,\u201d said Meder, who also claimed 100m breaststroke gold on the opening night of action in Gqeberha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had the confidence knowing I had someone in the race going the same speed. It\u2019s so good for the sport in general. I\u2019m new to the 200 breaststroke, so I was really happy with that\u2026 And good that both of us are in, just to keep that breaststroke legacy going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corbett explained that, despite achieving the qualifying time, she may not compete at this year\u2019s World Championships,\u201d choosing to focus on her Honours studies at the University of Pretoria as she rebuilds for the next Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust being at the beginning of [that cycle], it\u2019s good for me to be in a place where I\u2019m still qualifying and still doing the times even though I\u2019m not as rested as I would have liked to have been,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Meder\u2019s performance, Corbett added: \u201cI\u2019m so proud of her\u2026 It\u2019s so nice to know that someone else is going to race with me again. It\u2019s really nice having someone there in the call room. I\u2019ve said that plenty of times with Tats, so I think Tatjana is also watching at home, hopefully proud of the two of us as well because it\u2019s so nice to build on that legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, another notable performance on the night came from Pieter Coetz\u00e9, who dipped under the 49-second mark in the 100m freestyle for the first time. He took the gold in a time of 48.63 with Ruard van Renen second in 49.34 and Guy Brooks third in 49.39.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI really wanted to go under 49 so that was really the only goal for tonight and I got under 49 by quite a bit so I\u2019m very happy with that,\u201d he said afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew it was going to be close with Ruard and Guy. You never know who is going to be there on the day. It\u2019s one of my favourite races to swim, so it\u2019s a lot of fun every year with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erin Gallagher took the women\u2019s 100m freestyle in a time of 54.94 seconds, with her attention now switching to her main focus \u2013 the butterfly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s not a PB, but I just wanted to come out here and race. I really had no idea where I was with my freestyle,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m very happy to be done with that race and I can focus on my main event \u2013 we\u2019ll see what\u2019s in the bag for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Sates secured his fourth title of the championships in the 400m individual medley, winning in a time of 4:19.24 \u2013 almost a full 10 seconds quicker than his closest rival. It was 14-year-old Caitlin Evans who secured the women\u2019s 400m individual medley title in 5:00.16 while Matthew Randle took top honours in the men\u2019s 200m breaststroke, winning in 2:15.27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the evening, there was much celebration for Down Syndrome swimmer Minke Janse van Rensburg, who once again broke her own world record in the 50m butterfly, finishing in a time of 36.59 seconds \u2013 well under the 38.02-second mark she set in Cape Town earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Championship action continued in Gqeberha until Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PRESS RELEASE Women\u2019s breaststroke legacy lives on as Meder, Corbett qualify for world champs 11 April 2025 \u2013 The women\u2019s 200m breaststroke provided much excitement…<\/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\/10801"}],"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=10801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10802,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10801\/revisions\/10802"}],"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=10801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}