Tatjana Schoenmaker and Christian Sadie led the way as the Olympic and Paralympic Qualification short list continued to grow on the third night of swimming action at the SA National Aquatic Championships taking place in Gqeberha.
Schoenmaker cruised ahead of the pack in the 200m breaststroke to an impressive new African Record and Olympic Qualification time of 2:20.17, over 6 seconds ahead of Kaylene Corbett in 2:26.59 and Emily Visagie in 2:30.45.
Schoenmaker beat her own 2019 time of 2:21.79 as she is now seventh all-time.
Women’s 200 Breast All-Time Rankings:
- 2:19.11, Rikke Pedersen, Denmark, 2013
- 2:19.41, Yulia Efimova, Russia, 2013
- 2:19.59, Rebecca Soni, United States, 2012
- 2:19.64, Viktoria Gunes, Turkey, 2015
- 2:19.65, Rie Kaneto, Japan, 2016
- 2:20.12, Annamay Pierse, Canada, 2009
- 2:20.17, Tatjana Schoenmaker, South Africa, 2021
- 2:20.54, Leisel Jones, Australia, 2006
- 2:20.72, Satomi Suzuki, Japan, 2012
- 2:20.77, Annie Lazor, United States, 2019
Matthew Sates was just 1.06secs off the 1:47.02 Olympic requirement when he won the gold medal in the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:48.08, followed by Chad le Clos in a close 1:48.48 and Henre Louw in 1:51.80, while in the ladies’ freestyle final, Aimee Canny bagged the gold medal in 2:00.19 ahead of Rebecca Meder in 2:00.29 and Dune Coetzee in 2:00.69.
In the men’s 200m breaststroke, Alaric Basson claimed the top spot in 2:13.44, ahead of Ayrton Sweeney in 2:15.40 and Matthew Randle in 2:16.14, while in the 200m backstroke, Pieter Coetze, Martin Binedell and Dylan Wright made up the medal podium in 1:58.33, 1:59.44 and 2:04.29, respectively.
Samantha Randle claimed the 200m backstroke title in 2:17.49, followed by Hannah Pearse in 2:17.88 and Bernelee Doster in 2:19.00.
Christian Sadie (S7) raced to his second Paralympic Qualification time in the 50m freestyle, winning the event in a new SA Record time of 29.03, bettering his own 2019 time of 29.06.
In the remaining multi-disability races, Mzansi’s finest added another four more SA Records and one World Junior Record to their list of achievements in the competition so far.
16 year old Minke Janse van Rensburg (S14) posted a new World Junior Record in the 50m freestyle heats session in 34.85, beating her previous mark of 34.96 and then went on to improved on that time in the evening finals, winning the silver in 34.56.
There was no stopping Kat Swanepoel (S2) as she broke yet another SA Record in the heats of the 50m freestyle, clocking 50.92 to Jenny Symons’ 1994 time of 1:45.27, and shed 0.24secs to win the gold medal in the finals in 50.68, while Cornelle Leach (S12) broke her own SA Record in the morning heats of the 50m freestyle event, from the 2019 time of 32.21 to 31.67.
Paralympian Alani Ferreira (S13) won the gold medal in the 100m butterfly and added another SA Record to her tally in 1:20.08, to her 2019 time of 1:21.01, while 16 year old Matthew Moss (S9) shattered the U15-U18 SA Record with a time of 1:15.81 in the morning heats and bettered that time in the finals, winning the silver in 1:15.45. The 2010 SA Record stood at 1:19.53.
The day 04 heats will start at 09:30, while the finals will begin at 18h00 daily.
The staging of this event has been made possible through the support provided by Swimming SA partners, Sport and Recreation South Africa, SASCOC, National Lotteries Commission, Arena and Rand Water.
Olympic Qualifying Times following Day 03:
- Chad le Clos – 200m butterfly – 1:55.88
- Ethan du Preez – 200m butterfly – 1:56.44
- Tatjana Schoenmaker – 200m breaststroke – 2:20.17
Paralympic Qualifying Times following Day 03:
- Christian Sadie (S7) – 100m backstroke – 1:15.01
- Christian Sadie (S7) – 50m freestyle – 29.03
- Kat Swanepoel (S2) – 100m backstroke – 2:14.78
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