Van Niekerk Nails 29.78 50 Breast, Le Clos & Sates Qualify For Worlds In 100 Fly

2023 SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, April 12th – Sunday, April 16th
• Newton Park Swimming Pool, Gqeberha, South Africa
• LCM (50m)
• World Championships Qualifier
• Selection Criteria
• SwimSwam Preview
• Psych Sheet
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Results – Meet Mobile: SA National Aquatic SNR-Champ-2023-PE

The penultimate night of racing at the 2023 South African National Championships saw Commonwealth Games champion Lara van Niekerk bust out a sub-30 second 50m breast.

19-year-old van Niekerk clocked a time of 29.78 to score the 50m breast victory, coming within .05 of her own national record. The teen owns a lifetime best and South African standard of 29.72 from this same meet last year.

Behind van Niekerk in the race was two-time Olympic medalist Tatjana Schoenmaker who touched in 30.71 with both women dipping under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard for this summer’s World Championships in the process.

Van Niekerk now ranks #1 in the world this season, overtaking American Lilly King‘s previous world-leading 30.04.

Also coming close to a national record was Erin Gallagher in the women’s 100m butterfly.

The 24-year-old got to the wall in a swift 57.84 to come within .17 of her own record of 57.67 logged at these same championships 4 years ago.

Opening in 26.66 and closing in 31.18, Gallagher represented the sole woman of the field to get beneath the ‘A’ standard of 58.33 needed for Fukuoka.

Gallagher now ranks 11th in the world.

The backstroke dominator here, Pieter Coetze notched the victory in the men’s 50m free, with 42-year-old Roland Schoeman also in the water.

Coetze was quicker in the heats, producing a time of 22.18 but still grabbed the gold with an evening swim of 22.30. As for Schoeman, the veteran Olympian was 22.91 in the heats before snagging silver in the final with a time of 22.89.

Both men needed to be at least as quick as 22.12 to add the event to their lineup for this summer’s World Championships.

After missing out on World Aquatics cuts in his earlier events of the 100m/200m free and 200m IM/400m IM, 19-year-old Matt Sates made the grade in the 100m fly.

Sates collected silver in the 1fly final, producing a time of 51.91. That got him to the wall behind victorious Chad Le Clos who earned gold in a result of 51.37. The ‘A’ standard rests at 51.96, so Sates beat the threshold by a .05 margin while Le Clos was over half a second beneath the benchmark.

As for Le Clos, the 31-year-old Olympic champion now ranks 7th in the world on the season, with his 51.37 beating the 51.61 he posted for 4th place at last year’s Commonwealth Games. As for Sates, he owns a lifetime best of 51.83 from 2021 so tonight’s effort was within striking distance.

Making noise in the 800m free was Georgia swimmer Dune Coetzee.

20-year-old Coetzee busted out the fastest time of her career, hitting 8:33.46 for gold. That beat the next-closest swimmer by over 13 seconds and also cleared the World Championships standard of 8:37.90.

Entering this meet, Coetzee’s lifetime best rested at the 8:47.97 clocked at the 2019 World Championships. She obliterated that result with tonight’s performance, checking in just outside the list of top 15 performers worldwide on the season.

Additional Winners

• Emma Chelius topped the women’s 50m free podium in a time of 25.08. She needed to shave just .04 off that performance to clear the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 25.04 for Fukuoka.
• Michael Houlie got it done for gold in the men’s 50m breast, producing a time of 27.31. That narrowly dipped under the Fukuoka standard of 27.33.