South African Chad Le Clos Kicks Off 2020 In Stellenbosch

2020 SOUTH AFRICAN GRAND PRIX (STELLENBOSCH)

• Friday, January 31st – Sunday, February 2nd
• Stellenbosch, South Africa
• 50m (LCM)
• Live Results

27-year-old multi-faceted Chad Le Clos is set to get some racing under his belt this weekend in Stellenbosch, entered in the South African Grand Prix slated for Friday, January 31st – Sunday, February 2nd.

Le Clos is scheduled to take on a tough schedule on day 1, tackling the men’s 200m fly, 100m free and 200m fly events to kick off his 2020 calendar year. A regular FINA meet racer, the South African was not among the competitors at the two-stop FINA Champions Series earlier this month.

Still, the man is ranked 7th in the world in the 100m fly by way of his 51.70 result clocked in November at the FINA World Cup Doha stop. It was there that he also earned a time of 1:57.66 in the men’s 200m fly to rank 21st in the world this season heading into Stellebosch.

Another home nation swimmer to keep an eye on this weekend is young Matthew Sates, the 16-year-old who put up an impressive 200m IM lifetime best last month.

While competing at the KZNA Premier Championships in Durban, Seagulls’ Sates posted a 200m IM time of 2:03.62. That outing crushed his previous career-quickest of 2:05.01 logged at the 2019 World Junior Championships, rendering him 20th out of the heats. For perspective, Sates’ 2:03.62 would rank him 12th on the all-time performers’ list for Americans aged 15-16.

On the women’s side, 17-year-old Rebecca Meder and World Championships semi-finalist Erin Gallagher are both scheduled to race here, as is African Junior Games standout Dune Coetzee.

Of note, we have yet to see the published Olympic selection policy for Swimming South Africa. An official document does not appear on the organization’s website, nor among those sporting federation selection policies published on the SASCOC site.