{"id":11568,"date":"2025-10-20T15:38:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=11568"},"modified":"2025-10-20T15:39:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:39:00","slug":"press-release-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=11568","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SA\u2019s Meder maintains medal momentum on Swimming World Cup circuit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 October 2025 \u2013 South Africa\u2019s Rebecca Meder returned to the podium at the second stop of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup series in Westmont, Illinois over the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 23-year-old added to her haul of two bronze medals from the first stop a week earlier with another bronze in the 200m breaststroke on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meder stopped the clock on 2 minutes 18.88 seconds to secure third spot behind Olympic champion Kate Douglass, who took the gold in 2:14.57 and her fellow American Alex Walsh, who just snuck the silver ahead of Meder in 2:18.54.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New Zealand-based star, who reached all the finals of her respective events, finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke in 1:05.35. The race was won in 1:03.14 by Douglass, who also set a world record in the 100m freestyle over the weekend. Ireland\u2019s Mona McSharry took silver in 1:04.18 and American Alex Walsh the bronze in 1:04.45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After topping the time sheets in the heats of the 200m individual medley, Meder finished fifth in the final in 2:07.60. Gold was won by American Alex Walsh in 2:04.44, while silver went to Israel\u2019s Anastasia Gorbenko in 2:04.93 and bronze to Britain\u2019s Abbie Wood in 2:05.73.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meder finished seventh in her other event of the meet \u2013 the 100m individual medley in 58.31 seconds. The race was won by American Gretchen Walsh in a World Cup record time of 55.77 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While her times weren\u2019t quite as quick as they were at the opening stop of the series in Carmel, Meder was pleased with her overall performance, which saw South Africa finishing 18th<\/sup> on the medal table, thanks to her breaststroke bronze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was another solid weekend of racing. Unfortunately, I started fighting a head cold on Wednesday, but I am grateful that I made finals for all of my races and finished 17th overall for this stop,\u201d she said afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 200 and 100 breaststroke events are relatively new (I\u2019ve only been racing them internationally for a year), so I am grateful for this experience where I get to race the world\u2019s best and to learn and grow with every race. I am looking forward to another weekend of racing in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third and final stop of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup series takes place in Toronto, Canada this week, from 23-25 October. Meder heads into the competition currently ranked 14th<\/sup> overall in the women\u2019s World Cup standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meder\u2019s coach, Graham Hill, believes this experience racing against the likes Douglass and Walsh has been invaluable, saying: \u201cHopefully the race experience she will gain from the three stops will move her to another level when she races at some major competitions like Commonwealth Games and Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

SA\u2019s Meder maintains medal momentum on Swimming World Cup circuit 20 October 2025 \u2013 South Africa\u2019s Rebecca Meder returned to the podium at the second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9760,"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\/11568"}],"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=11568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11569,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11568\/revisions\/11569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}