2023 GRAND PRIX DURBAN
- Friday, March 3rd – Sunday, March 5th
- Kings Park Pool, Durban, South Africa
- LCM (50m)
- Results – Meet Mobile: 2023 Grand Prix 2 Invitational Meet – KZN
The 2023 Grand Prix Durban kicked off in South Africa yesterday, with prelims taking place last night while finals are conducted in the morning.
Already making noise at Kings Park Pool was 19-year-old Lara van Niekerk who took on the women’s 100m breaststroke event. Van Niekerk fired off a prelims time of 1:06.65 yesterday to land lane 4.
Opening in 31.07 and closing in 35.58, her time dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut needed to qualify for this summer’s World Championships, although this meet is non-selection. The Pretoria Aquatic Club ace will need to hit the mark at the South African National Championships which take place next month.
Although van Niekerk was ultimately slower in the final here, touching in 1:007.88 to runner-up Kaylene Corbett‘s 1:08.89, the Commonwealth Games champion now ranks 5th in the world on the season.
2022-2023 LCM Women 100 Breast
Meilutyte
1:04.62
| 2 | Lilly King | USA | 1:04.75 | 06/30 |
| 3 | Evgeniia Chikunova | RUS | 1:04.92 | 04/19 |
| 4 | Lydia Jacoby | USA | 1:05.16 | 06/30 |
| 5 | Kaitlyn Dobler | USA | 1:05.48 | 06/30 |
Van Niekerk is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion in this event, winning gold in Birmingham in a time of 1:05.47. Corbett was also in that race, placing 7th in 1:07.62.
After this domestic race, Corbett said, “For me, this is a train-through meet so anything I’m doing right now is incredibly good for me in comparison to training and how hard we’ve trained up until today, so I’m having fun and enjoying the racing. That’s the important part about these Grand Prix meet.
“It’s world champs and World Student Games this year so two big competitions that we’re all excited for… we’re just celebrating all the small victories in our training at the moment.”
“And Lara swimming an Olympic A qualifying time now already is just incredible.”
Cal commit Pieter Coetze was also in the water, contesting the men’s 100m backstroke race.
Coetze touched in a time of 53.92 to win the event by well over 3 seconds en route to putting up his swiftest time of the season. That result also dipped under the ‘A’ cut for Fukuoka and was just .14 off the 53.78 he produced for Commonwealth Games gold.
This morning Coetze led off in 26.21 and posted a back half of 27.71 to get the job done, becoming the 6th fastest swimmer in the world this season in the process.
2022-2023 LCM Men 100 Back
Kolesnikov
51.82
| 2 | Ryan Murphy | USA | 52.04 | 07/30 |
| 3 | Thomas Ceccon | ITA | 52.12 | 07/24 |
| 4 | Xu Jiayu | CHN | 52.26 | 05/03 |
| 5 | Hunter Armstrong | USA | 52.33 | 06/30 |
Post-race Coetze said, “I’m very happy, we’re not tapered at all, not rested or shaved or anything so we didn’t really have any expectations coming into this.
“I’ve been having fun just racing and getting used to it and I’m very happy and surprised with the time I got this morning.
“I think it’s very important for all the swimmers around the country to come together and have some fun and to race. The racing is very important in the build-up to Nationals. There’s a different kind of fitness that comes with racing compared to just training all the time.”
Additional Notes
- 15-year-old Kris Mihaylov posted a time of 4:32.63 to take the men’s 400m IM event over 16-year-old Brendan Visser who scored silver in 4:40.93.
- Rebecca Meder grabbed two golds on the morning, winning the 200m free in 2:00.92 while also clocking 2:13.94 in the 200m IM.
- The women’s 100m fly saw Erin Gallagher produce the sole mark under the minute barrier, touching in 59.59 for the top prize.