<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gallagher, Smith and Canny lead the way with Olympic qualifiers at SA champs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 12 April 2024 \u2013 Erin Gallagher powered to her second national record of the week on the penultimate night of action at the SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pretoria swimmer stormed to the national title in the 100m butterfly in a time of 57.32 seconds, also dipping under the Olympic qualifying time of 57.92. That saw her bettering the African record she set at the World Championships in Doha earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 25-year-old admitted afterwards her body had not felt good in the morning so she had held back in the heats. \u201cBut I went home, had a two-hour nap, had some McDonald\u2019s and I was ready to go this evening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I finished the race I thought I\u2019d be more tired but now I feel like I need to go again so that\u2019s a good sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think if this race was earlier in the gala I could have maybe done a little bit more, but this is where I\u2019m at now and there are lessons to be learnt and rather swim slower and faster in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also planning ahead to Paris is Tatjana Smith, who achieved the Olympic qualifying time in the heats and final of the 100m breaststroke. She swam 1:05.48 to take the gold with Commonwealth Games champion Lara van Niekerk finishing second in 1:07.16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I did the 200m [breaststroke] I was like, ok the main one is done, so I was really struggling to get my mindset back into competing and I think also physically it took a toll. I could feel this one burnt a lot more than it did in the 200 so you have those pros and cons,\u201d said a relieved Smith who explained she\u2019s still fully recovering from a groin strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later in the evening, Aimee Canny booked her ticket to Paris by achieving the required qualifying time in the opening leg of the 4x200m freestyle relay as part of the Western Cape team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 20-year-old shook off the disappointment of missing out on qualification in the 200m freestyle final on Wednesday by .13 of a second and bounced back in impressive fashion with a time of 1:56.80 to dip well under the required 1:57.26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I have the words right now to describe it. I\u2019m super-happy with that swim. It was just a great swim\u2026 It\u2019s pretty surreal right now. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve been practising and training for this moment so it\u2019s so weird that it\u2019s come true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking about coming back from just missing out on Wednesday, Canny added: \u201cI had a good day to just process everything and then I was like, I\u2019m ready, I want to go again. I knew .1 [of a second] is nothing, especially in a 200. I knew I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Chad le Clos enjoyed a 32nd<\/sup> birthday to remember by finishing in a dead heat with young rival Matt Sates in the 100m butterfly. Sates turned first but the duo were neck and neck by the final metres, both finishing in a time of 52.07 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll credit to Matt,\u201d said Le Clos afterwards. \u201cIt was a nice one for the fans and a good way to end my birthday but there\u2019s a lot of work to do. We\u2019re a bit far off the pace at the moment but looking forward to the Olympics,\u201d added the four-time Olympic medallist who, together with Sates, has already achieved the qualifying time in the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Para swimmers also continued to impress on Friday, with both Christian Sadie and Nathan Hendricks adding to their Paralympic qualifying times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadie achieved his in the morning heats of the SM7 200m individual medley in a time of 2:38.45 while Hendricks swam two qualifying times in the SM13 200m individual medley \u2013 once in the heats (2:18.19) and then taking over a second off that time in the final (2:17.15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Swimming action continues at the Newton Park Swimming Pool on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Swimmers who have achieved Olympic qualifying times at the SA Championships 2024:<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aimee Canny (200m freestyle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pieter Coetz\u00e9 (100m backstroke, 200m backstroke)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kaylene Corbett (200m breaststroke)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Erin Gallagher (100m butterfly)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tatjana Smith (100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke)<\/p>\n\n\n\n – ENDS –<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gallagher, Smith and Canny lead the way with Olympic qualifiers at SA champs 12 April 2024 \u2013 Erin Gallagher powered to her second national record…<\/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\/9908"}],"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=9908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9909,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908\/revisions\/9909"}],"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=9908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}