Local teenage swimmers do South Africa proud at the Commonwealth Games
South Africa's first two medals at the Commonwealth Games were collected in the pool late on Saturday evening (SA time) and they are both golds, while the two winners are both teenage swimming sensations from Pretoria.
Pretoria’s teen swimming sensations Lara van Niekerk and Pieter Coetzé led the medal charge on the second night of swimming at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Saturday.
Van Niekerk claimed Team South Africa’s first medal of the Games by powering to gold in the 50m breaststroke final, which featured three South African swimmers. She claimed the victory in another Commonwealth Games record time of 29.73 seconds. Two other Pretoria girls were also part of the final. Tatjana Schoenmaker finished fourth in 30.41 and Kaylene Corbett sixth in 31.10.
“It felt amazing, the crowd was going wild, so I knew it was going to be close. But I was just happy that I could swim the second fastest time I’ve ever done and to win a medal is a bonus so I’m super-happy,” said the beaming 19-year-old afterwards.
Olympic champion Schoenmaker, whose focus will be on her main 100 and 200m breaststroke events, was thrilled for her teammate to claim the first medal of the Games for the country.
“It’s amazing – we’re always supporting women so it’s great to have a woman grab the first one. We can just be so proud of them. Being the senior now in the group it’s nice to see the juniors come up and take the win,” she said after the race.
Later in the evening, Coetzé outgunned the field in the 100m backstroke final, speeding to gold in 53.78 seconds.
“It was definitely a bit closer than I expected and I was definitely expecting to go a bit faster than the semi but my coach told me it’s not about times at all, it’s just about getting the win. It’s my first international medal and it’s amazing to get a gold,” said Coetzé.
Photo: Team SA/Anton Geyser
Elsewhere, Matt States finished sixth in the 200m freestyle final in 1:47.75 and followed that up with fourth in the 400m individual medley in 4:16.61.
Four other South Africans booked places in their respective finals.
Emma Chelius and Erin Gallagher progressed to the final of the 50m freestyle. Chelius was third in her semi-final in 24.94 to qualify fifth fastest while Gallagher was fourth in her semi in 25.31 to go through as seventh quickest. Olivia Nel just missed out after finishing fifth in the same semi-final in 25.38.
Also making her way through was Rebecca Meder, who finished fourth in her 100m backstroke semi-final in a personal best time of 1:01.71.
The other South African to progress was Brenden Crawford in the 100m breaststroke after finishing fourth in his semi-final in 1:0064. Just missing out was Michael Houlie, who finished fifth in the same race in 1:01.24.
Alani Ferreira (30.89) and Cornelle Leach (31.34) finished seventh and eighth respectively in the women’s 50m freestyle S13 final – the only event on offer for visually impaired swimmers.
The men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle relays ended off the nights action with the SA quartet of Aimee Canny, Chelius, Nel and Gallagher finishing fourth in the women’s race in 3:40.31 and the team of Guy Brooks, Clayton Jimmie, Andrew Ross and Brenden Crawford finishing sixth in the men’s race in 3:23.41.
What a moment!
Lara van Niekerk gets #TeamSA on the medal board#TeamSA#B2022 pic.twitter.com/BO8624fbx8
— Team South Africa (@TeamSA2024) July 30, 2022
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