<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday, 13 August 2022 \u2013 Pretoria teenager Lara van Niekerk continued her sensational form at the SA Short Course Championships on Saturday, storming to yet another SA and African record in the Pietermaritzburg pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 19-year-old double Commonwealth Games gold medallist stormed to victory in the 50m breaststroke in 29.62 seconds to better the record she set in the morning heats (29.67) and at the same event a year ago (29.85). In doing so, she also secured another A qualification mark for the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia this December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She may have gone faster than ever before, but Van Niekerk reckoned afterwards, it could have been even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI definitely think I can go faster \u2013 especially coming back from such a big competition [like the Commonwealth Games], you are very tired,\u201d she said after the race. \u201cWhen I go back from the heats sessions, I literally just go and sleep\u2026 I\u2019m dead because such a big competition takes so much out of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think my results could have been slightly better \u2013 if I had all that energy I had at Commonwealths so I think the future will have better times,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, also once again showing his class was 18-year-old Pieter Coetz\u00e9 who dipped below the A qualifying mark on his way to victory in the 100m backstroke in 51.08. He also claimed the 50m freestyle title in 22.28, after edging ahead of Commonwealth Games teammate Clayton Jimmie (second in 22.32).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just wanted to get at least one qualifying time here so I was very happy to get that done and I\u2019m excited to rest a little bit now ahead of the World Junior Championships,\u201d said Coetz\u00e9, referring to his next major competition which will take place in Lima, Peru from 30 August to 4 September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt will be nice to get back to basics, train a little bit and get some schoolwork done \u2013 and then I\u2019m excited for Peru. It will be a long flight and everything but I\u2019m excited to see what I can do there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, several other swimmers in Pietermaritzburg achieved B qualifying times, that will still put them in contention for selection for the World Short Course Championships later in the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caitlin de Lange claimed the national 50m freestyle title in a time of 25.27. Her morning heat time of 31.47 in the 50m breaststroke was also a B qualifier, while she also previously achieved the required time in the 100m freestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going better than expected,\u201d admitted De Lange afterwards. \u201cI just got back from racing in Ireland so I was really looking forward to coming and racing short course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rebecca Meder claimed the 200m individual medley title in a B qualifying time of 2:10.38 with second-placed Tucker also dipping under the mark in 2:13.24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local teen Matt Sates then did the same in the men\u2019s 200 IM, taking his sixth title of the Championships in a time of 1:55.98 while Stephanie Houtman claimed victory in the 400m freestyle in a B qualifying time of 4:14.19 with second-placed Catherine van Rensburg also achieving the qualifier in 4:15.19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday, 13 August 2022 \u2013 Pretoria teenager Lara van Niekerk continued her sensational form at the SA Short Course Championships on Saturday, storming to yet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7443,"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\/7928"}],"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=7928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7929,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7928\/revisions\/7929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}