2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Start Lists
- Results
In terms of finishing position, the South African women didn’t improve on day one of the 2019 World Championships in the 400 free relay compared to the last version of the competition two years ago.
In Budapest, they placed 13th out of 13 teams. This year, 18th out of 18.
But lost in the placing is their vast improvement in performance.
In 2017 they put up a time of 3:57.83, a full 19.54 seconds short of what it took to qualify for the final (Denmark, 3:38.29).
This year, however, they swam a time of 3:43.35 – a new African Record by over a second and a half – and much more competitive in the field.
They found themselves trailing Hong Kong, who finished one spot ahead of them, by over 13 seconds in Budapest. This time around they were less than five seconds (4.80) behind eighth-place Germany who qualified for the final, and South Korea (3:42.58), Turkey (3:43.03) and Singapore (3:43.11) were all less than a second ahead of them.
This signals a large step in the right direction for a country (and a continent) that has struggled in women’s swimming for many years.
Erin Gallagher (55.17), Tayla Lovemore (56.21), Emma Chelius (55.28) and Rebecca Meder (56.69) gave the team four respectable legs in a relay at the World Championships, something they haven’t had in six years.
In 2017, in addition to the 400 free relay, they finished last in the 400 medley. In 2015, no African nation had any teams entered in a female relay. 2011 and 2013 saw South Africa place 15th and 11th respectively in the 400 medley, but there were no freestyle relays. And we have to go all the way back to 2009 for an African country that isn’t South Africa to field a team at a Worlds, with Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Senegal and Kenya all contesting relays.
So while the result isn’t anything jaw-dropping, it’s a good stepping stone for the future. Heck, they were only two seconds outside of earning an Olympic berth.
No African nations have made their way onto the medal table yet.
African Records:
- Continental: women’s 400m free relay, 3:43.35
- Egyptian: Abdelrahman Sameh, men’s 50m fly, 23.54
- Ghanaian: Kaya Forson, women’s 200m IM, 2:34.59
- Mozambican: Igor Mogne, men’s 400m free, 3:54.90
Can someone explain to me why the SA women are so awful at this event?
The men have a strong history of competing in this event.
Good to for them to continue the growth! Now can someone explain how GBR cannot field a relay???
It’s pointless. Why waste some of our swimmers energy for a relay where we might not even make the top 12 when we could focus on our athletes doing events where they at least have a shot of doing alright.
Good point Jeff
Fair enough. My counter point:
The top GBR ranked athletes have a 53.6/54.0/54.2 and then a drop off to a 55.2. However not hard to see A 54.0 avg. (with relay take offs) giving a 3:36 and that would have been 4th or 5th today. I understand that a podium finish is a far stretch.
The two GBR athletes are ranked 14th and 19th in the 100 and the individual event is 4 days later.