2018 GRAND PRIX INVITATIONAL – STELLENBOSCH
- Friday, February 16th – Sunday, February 18th
- Stellenbosch University Pool, Stellenbosch, South Africa
- LCM
- Meet Results – 2018 Grand Prix Invitational Swimming Meet-CT in Meet Mobile
South Africa’s Grand Prix in Stellenbosch was void of Olympian Chad Le Clos, but saw multi-medalist Cameron van der Burgh compete in at least the prelims in Cape Town. Competing in the morning heats of the men’s 50m and 100m breaststroke, VDB captured the first seed in both, clocking respective times of 27.96 and 1:01.66. He would opt out of competing in the finals.
Several domestic standouts threw down medal-winning performances over the course of finals, however, including Ayrton Sweeney who won both the 200m IM and 400m IM, as well as the 200m breaststroke. Sweeney’s time of 4:19.96 was enough to take the 400m IM title, while he won the shorter IM in 2:03.10 and the 200m breast in 2:14.78.
19-year-old Seagulls swimmer Erin Gallagher also made her mark on the meet, winning the 100m fly, 50m back and 50m freestyle in one night. Gallagher dipped under the minute mark to the win the 100m fly in 59.90, while her time of 30.03 proved fast enough to take the sprint back. Finally, her 25.88 in the 50m free was worthy of gold. The next day Gallagher was able to also stand atop the podium in the 100m free in 55.95 and 50m fly in 27.53.
Sprinter Douglas Erasmus swept the 50m and 100m freestyle events, winning in 22.99 and 51.48, respectively.