{"id":7555,"date":"2022-06-26T12:51:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T10:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=7555"},"modified":"2022-06-26T12:51:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T10:51:56","slug":"van-niekerk-claims-sas-first-world-champs-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=7555","title":{"rendered":"Van Niekerk claims SA\u2019s first world champs medal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Saturday, 25 June 2022 \u2013<\/strong> Lara van Niekerk ensured South Africa\u2019s proud record in the World Championships pool continued by bagging a bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke on Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Competing in her first major event at senior level, the 19-year-old came up against world record-holder Benedetta Pilato and 2013 world champion Ruta Meilutyte in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Niekerk swam 29.90 to take the bronze, with Meilutyte taking gold for Lithuania in 29.70 and Pinato the silver for Italy in 29.80.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Niekerk\u2019s performance means South Africa have claimed a medal at every long course World Championships since Roland Schoeman\u2019s solitary bronze in the 50m freestyle at the 2001 event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSurprisingly I wasn\u2019t that nervous. I thought I would be way more freaked out than I was,\u201d admitted the talented teenager. \u201cI was actually very calm and just focused on what I had to do and how I had to execute the race, so I think that was a really good thing \u2013 learning how to manage the nerves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so happy. My first senior world champs and winning a medal, I think it\u2019s a bonus,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The last time Van Niekerk competed at a world championships in Budapest was the junior edition as a 16-year-old back in 2019 where she finished just off the podium in fourth, with a then 14-year-old Pilato taking the gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked about her progress since then, Van Niekerk reckoned: \u201cI\u2019m definitely happy with the improvement. If you look at my time at junior worlds, it\u2019s a two-second difference. I\u2019m just happy to be improving, it\u2019s a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Van Niekerk\u2019s coach, Eugene da Ponte was thrilled with the medal, particularly with an eye on the next month\u2019s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat was half the reason we decided to come here, to deal with the more high-pressure situation so that when we get to Commonwealth Games, we can really focus and try to swim really fast. This was more for experience and that\u2019s going to be for trying to get the times we really want. I\u2019m looking forward to it. I know Lara is too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, 25 June 2022 \u2013 Lara van Niekerk ensured South Africa\u2019s proud record in the World Championships pool continued by bagging a bronze medal in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7556,"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\/7555"}],"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=7555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7557,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555\/revisions\/7557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}