{"id":9898,"date":"2024-04-05T17:31:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T15:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=9898"},"modified":"2024-04-05T17:31:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T15:31:29","slug":"olympic-places-on-the-line-at-sa-swimming-championships-in-gqeberha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=9898","title":{"rendered":"Olympic places on the line at SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Olympic places on the line at SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 April 2024 \u2013 The country’s top swimmers head to Gqeberha next week for the National Championships which this year take on extra importance as they serve as Olympic trials ahead of Paris 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among them, and looking to confirm his spot at a fourth Olympic Games, is veteran Chad le Clos. The 31-year-old has returned to the country from his training base in Frankfurt, Germany and says being at home for the past week has made all the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a little bit hard being away for so long.  So it\u2019s good for me to be at home, to get my head back in the game, have some sunshine, eat my dad\u2019s food and be around the family,\u201d admitted the four-time Olympic medallist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything is good. I\u2019ve had a massive block of training, especially since the world champs so I might be a little bit overcooked in the sense of training but I\u2019m ready for next week. I think it\u2019s going to be good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not expecting to set the world alight\u2026 But it would be good to defend those titles and see what happens and go from there,\u201d added Le Clos who has entered the 100 and 200m butterfly and the 100m freestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also looking forward to the week ahead is young gun Pieter Coetz\u00e9 who was the country\u2019s only medallist at the recent World Aquatics Championships in Doha, picking up a bronze in the 200m backstroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling very good heading into trials. I\u2019ve been doing some good training and it\u2019s been tough but it\u2019s always good to be positive so I\u2019m looking forward to racing again,\u201d said the 19-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got some good memories in the PE pool, so I\u2019m feeling confident. I wouldn\u2019t really say I\u2019m hoping for anything but I\u2019d like to put up some good performances and boost my confidence heading towards Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coetz\u00e9 famously qualified for the delayed 2020 Olympics in the same Gqeberha pool at the age of just 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also looking to boost her confidence ahead of Paris is breaststroke queen Tatjana Schoenmaker, who chose to skip the World Championships in February but will be looking to defend her Olympic title in the 200m breaststroke in the French capital later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fellow breaststrokers Kaylene Corbett and Lara van Niekerk will also be in the mix. Corbett finished fifth in the same race that Schoenmaker won her Olympic gold and set a world record, while Van Niekerk is gunning for a place at her first Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am looking forward to building on my performances from World Champs,\u201d said Van Niekerk. \u201cThere are lessons me and my coach took from my races and now we want to implement them at Nationals and see how fast I can go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut as always, I am just focusing on giving my best and then I will think about Paris,\u201d added the two-time Commonwealth Games champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming action begins at the Newton Park Swimming Pool on Monday, 8 April and will continue until Saturday, 13 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PRESS RELEASE Olympic places on the line at SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha 5 April 2024 \u2013 The country’s top swimmers head to Gqeberha next…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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\/9898"}],"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=9898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9899,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898\/revisions\/9899"}],"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=9898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}