{"id":9813,"date":"2024-02-12T09:21:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T07:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=9813"},"modified":"2024-02-12T09:23:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T07:23:54","slug":"african-record-for-gallagher-on-opening-day-of-world-swimming-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=9813","title":{"rendered":"African record for Gallagher on opening day of World Swimming Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

African record for Gallagher on opening day of World Swimming Championships<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11 February 2024 \u2013 Erin Gallagher kicked off the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar by setting a new African record in the 100m butterfly and booking a place in her first ever world championships final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pretoria-based swimmer blazed to the new continental mark in the morning heats, finishing in a time of 57.59 seconds, so qualifying third fastest for the evening semifinal where she finished third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallagher\u2019s semi-final time was a slightly slower 57.92 but it was quick enough to see her through to Monday night\u2019s final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 25-year-old admitted afterwards: \u201cI really didn\u2019t expect to swim a best time and break the African record. That was a really big treat for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing the first race of the gala, with the nerves and breaking the ice, sometimes you can have a bit of a rusty swim and you realise what you need to work on, so to see that African record next to my time was a really big shock for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallagher, who also held the previous record \u2013 set at the World Student Games in China last year \u2013 will contest the 100m butterfly final on Monday night and is also entered into the 50m butterfly as well as the 50 and 100m freestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just looking forward to the rest of the week and seeing what it holds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other South African in action in the evening session on the opening day of action was veteran Chad le Clos who swam in the 50m butterfly semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Clos had booked his place in the semis by winning his morning heat in a time of 23.47 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better known for the longer butterfly events, the 31-year-old finished eighth in his semifinal in a time of 23.68 and did not progress to the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was really, really happy with the 50 fly heats\u2026 it was very surprising. I didn\u2019t expect to make it through, to be honest. I\u2019m focusing more on the 100 fly this week and a bit of the 100 freestyle,\u201d said Le Clos, also adding a shout-out to Gallagher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was a big swim from Erin,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s come a long way so I\u2019m very happy for her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the day, Dun\u00e9 Coetzee finished 14th<\/sup> overall in the 400m freestyle heats in 4:12.03, so missing out on the final while Matthew Randle was 28th<\/sup> overall in the 100m breaststroke heats in 1:01.80.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty happy about the swim. It was a solid swim,\u201d said Coetzee. \u201cI would have liked to go a little bit faster but it was only one and a half seconds off my best so it was good for a morning swim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was good to get the first one out of the way. You never really know where you\u2019re at after the first day after the travelling and everything so it was good to get the nerves to calm down a little bit and then I have a day off now and the 200 freestyle the day after. I\u2019m just trying to go as fast as I can and hopefully get a personal best time. The 200 freestyle is a fun race for me and I\u2019m excited to see what I can do in that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming action continues on Monday morning on what will be a busy day for the South African team with Milla Drakopoulos (100m backstroke), Pieter Coetz\u00e9 (100m backstroke), Lara van Niekerk (100m breaststroke), Matt Sates (200m freestyle) and Stephanie Houtman (1500m freestyle) all in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– ENDS –<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credits: SA Sports Images<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE African record for Gallagher on opening day of World Swimming Championships 11 February 2024 \u2013 Erin Gallagher kicked off the World Aquatics Championships…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9813"}],"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=9813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9814,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9813\/revisions\/9814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}