{"id":8861,"date":"2023-04-16T06:42:20","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T04:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=8861"},"modified":"2023-04-16T19:54:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T17:54:12","slug":"le-clos-and-gallagher-clinch-olympic-qualifiers-as-schoeman-rolls-back-to-years-in-gqeberha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=8861","title":{"rendered":"Le Clos and Gallagher clinch Olympic qualifiers as Schoeman rolls back to years in Gqeberha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Le Clos and Gallagher clinch Olympic qualifiers as Schoeman rolls back to years in Gqeberha<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

15 April 2023 \u2013 While returning veteran Roland Schoeman put in an admirable performance in his comeback, it was Chad le Clos, Erin Gallagher and Lara van Niekerk who stole the show on the fourth night of swimming at the SA National Aquatic Championships in Gqeberha, which also featured numerous other standout performances on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following his victories in the 200m butterfly and 100m freestyle, Le Clos continued to impress in the 100m butterfly, powering to an Olympic qualifying time of 51.37 and outgunning young Matt Sates to the title. Second-placed Sates nevertheless achieved an A qualifying time for the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan this July, finishing in a speedy 51.91.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy with the week. I was a little nervous\u2026 for some reason, Matt and I have these ding-dong battles in the final 10 metres and it\u2019s always super-close but I\u2019m delighted with the time and the result and now we try and win this race next year at the Olympic Games. Now I\u2019m confident I can win,\u201d said Le Clos afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTonight I was finessed, I was controlled, hit my strokes, hit the turn well and I thought he was coming so I just put my head down so I\u2019m over the moon. But now we push on to the Olympics \u2013 they\u2019ve got a lot of trouble coming their way. That\u2019s what I can promise you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallagher was elated to dip below the 58-second mark in the 100m butterfly for the first time since 2019. The 24-year-old stopped the clock on 57.84 seconds to secure qualification for both the World Championships and Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to know that I\u2019m on track. It\u2019s quite emotional \u2013 I\u2019m surprised I\u2019m not crying right now,\u201d said Gallagher. As for achieving the Olympic qualifying time, she added: \u201cIt was something that I was trying to go for. My coach said it was time to now swim a qualifying time so just to know that I\u2019ve done it is such a weight lifted off my shoulders and I\u2019m so, so grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teen breaststroke sensation Van Niekerk had earlier swum the fastest time in the world this year in the 50m breaststroke heats (29.83) and went even quicker in the evening final, taking the title in 29.78 ahead of Tatajana Schoenmaker, who also achieved the A qualifying time in 30.71.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really like swimming the 50m breaststroke in this pool. I can always hear the crowd going wild. I think they love watching me swim the 50m breaststroke and I think it\u2019s just confidence knowing that I broke the African record here so every time I get here and swim the 50m I\u2019m like \u2013 this is my pool,\u201d said Van Niekerk, who said finishing second behind Schoenmaker in the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week had spurred her on to a speedy time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t an issue but I think it made me want to swim this time even more to show that I am still a very good swimmer even though I came second,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019m really happy for Tatjana coming first and I think once I\u2019m rested I\u2019ll do much better in the 100 again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Houlie ensured he was not to be outdone in the men\u2019s 50m breaststroke, recording A qualifying times in both the heats (27.29) and final (27.31).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good. So far this season it\u2019s had a lot of ups and a lot of downs and this is definitely more on the up for me. I\u2019m so grateful and blessed to have this opportunity to race here. But I just want to swim it again because I think I\u2019ve got so much more left in me and I can\u2019t wait to get back to work and see how fast I can go in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a surprise A-qualification time for Dun\u00e9 Coetzee in the 800m freestyle. The US-based swimmer powered to victory in a time of 8:33.46.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very big surprise. I think this is the second time I\u2019ve properly raced the 800 so I\u2019m super surprised and so happy,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m learning to fall in love with the distance races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the evening, it wasn\u2019t quite the dream comeback Roland Schoeman had envisaged, beaten to the 50m freestyle title by a man 24 years his junior, but the 42-year-old nevertheless defied his years to finish second in 22.89 to Pieter Coetz\u00e9\u2019s 22.30. Like he\u2019d done in the morning, Schoeman\u2019s time saw him setting a new masters world record for swimmers aged 40-44.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a lot of fun and definitely some nerves before, just seeing him there so it was such an honour and I really had a lot of fun,\u201d said Coetz\u00e9. \u201cThe time wasn\u2019t great but it was just about trying to get the win tonight so I\u2019m very happy,\u201d added the teen star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking about being back at the national championships, Schoeman added: \u201cIt is special. The time is not quite where I want it to be but having been off for so long it was hard to know where I was going to be. It was faster than this morning, but I don\u2019t think I was as smooth and relaxed as this morning. I think the more I race, the better it\u2019s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Minke Janse van Rensburg was once again in record-breaking form, leading the way for the swimmers with a disability. The 18-year-old powered to another world record for swimmers with Down syndrome in the 100m freestyle, bettering her own mark with a time of 1:17.61.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kat Swanepoel swam almost a full 10 seconds under the A qualifying time for the Para Swimming World Championships in Manchester in the heats of the S4 50m backstroke, finishing in an impressive time of 50.93 seconds. 19-year-old Amkele Qamarana also achieved another A qualifier \u2013 this time in the S15 100m freestyle in a time of 1:03.51.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more day of competition remains, with the SA National Aquatic Championships coming to an end on Sunday, 16 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Le Clos and Gallagher clinch Olympic qualifiers as Schoeman rolls back to years in Gqeberha 15 April 2023 \u2013 While returning veteran Roland Schoeman put…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8863,"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\/8861"}],"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=8861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8862,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8861\/revisions\/8862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}