{"id":7231,"date":"2022-04-09T04:55:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T02:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=7231"},"modified":"2022-04-09T04:56:41","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T02:56:41","slug":"le-clos-shakes-off-nerves-to-secure-qualifying-time-at-sa-swimming-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=7231","title":{"rendered":"Le Clos shakes off nerves to secure qualifying time at SA Swimming Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Le Clos shakes off nerves to secure qualifying time at SA Swimming Championships<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 April 2022 \u2013 Chad le Clos added his name to the list of qualifiers for the World Championships and Commonwealth Games at the SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 29-year-old had looked a little sluggish in the morning heats of the 200m butterfly but powered to victory in the final in 1:55.75 to dip under the required time by almost a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that he also secured his 12th<\/sup> consecutive national title in the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m over the moon. I was very nervous\u2026 not nervous to race anybody but I needed to qualify,\u201d said the 2012 Olympic champion, who is a three-time Commonwealth champion in the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI made sure I took it out strong and I tried to get something from the race. I didn\u2019t want to go kamikazi<\/em> and then die at the end. I wanted to be in control, good stroke rate, tempo, good underwaters at all three turns. So it was a very important for me just to swim a solid race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m also just happy to get the qualifying time. Nationals is always a stressful time for me, I don\u2019t know why, I get nervous and you\u2019ve got to get that monkey off your back so now that it\u2019s off I\u2019m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Clos was back in the pool later in the evening for the 100m freestyle, but it was young challenger Matt Sates who secured top honours there, winning in a time of 48.97 with the veteran a distant fifth in 50.86.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, securing her second qualification time of the meet was Olympic champion and world record-holder Tatjana Schoenmaker, who swam 2:25.16 in the morning 200m breaststroke heats and followed that up with a 2:24.01 in the final. Her teammate, Kaylene Corbett, also achieved qualifying times in both races with a 2:25.41 in the morning and a 2:24.66 in the final for the silver medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt burned a lot more than the Olympics,\u201d admitted Schoenmaker afterwards. \u201cBut I just wanted to make the Commonwealth team and I can\u2019t wait to race internationally again. Obviously this isn\u2019t the best time, but that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about at the moment. It\u2019s about getting back into racing again after such a big event so I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an emotional result for Corbett, who had to swim a time trial at last year\u2019s championships to qualify for the Olympic Games, where she then progressed all the way to the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis year I was definitely coming in with intent to try and get this time as soon as possible and not put as much pressure on myself to get a qualifying time\u2026 There are a lot of emotions being back at this pool and swimming that time really means a lot to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just happy it\u2019s over and I get to hopefully be on the Commonwealth team so that\u2019s always just a huge plus side for me \u2013 to be able to race and compete for my country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, teenage star Pieter Coetz\u00e9 secured another qualifying mark, in the 50m backstroke. He dipped under the required time with a 24.94 in the heats and then bettered that with a 24.74 in the final, which he won comfortably to add to the 100m backstroke title already in the bag. Coetz\u00e9 also finished second in the 100m freestyle behind Sates in 50.17<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t expect to go that much quicker so I was very happy with that. It\u2019s definitely nice to get quite a few times and not just one,\u201d said the 17-year-old after the backstroke. I\u2019m hoping for the 200m backstroke and maybe the 50 free \u2013 we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having missed out on qualifying in the individual 50m freestyle on Thursday, Olympic semi-finalist Emma Chelius dipped under the mark during the opening leg of the 4x50m freestyle relay, reaching the wall in 24.95 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was hoping to go under 25 seconds, that was the plan from the start,\u201d said Chelius. \u201cI had much better preparation going into this evening. I warmed up at a different pool because I really battle with the cold and I\u2019m feeling it quite a lot here. I think that was a much better start for me and it just meant I felt a lot more speed during the race and it all came together, so I was happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other winners on the night were Erin Gallagher in the 50m butterfly in 26.39, just missing out on the qualifying time by seven hundredths of a second, while Stephanie Houtman took top honours in the 1500m freestyle in 16:55.55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming continues at the Newton Park swimming pool on Saturday and finishing on Monday, 11 April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE Le Clos shakes off nerves to secure qualifying time at SA Swimming Championships 8 April 2022 \u2013 Chad le Clos added his name…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"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\/7231"}],"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=7231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7233,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions\/7233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}