Local swimmers in promising early-season performances
Three of Pretoria's top swimmers showed this past weekend that they are ready to qualify for this year's Swimming World Championships which will take place in Japan in July.
Pretoria’s world junior swimming champion, Pieter Coetzé, showed his speedwork is well on track by recording an A qualifying time for the Swimming World Championships in the 50m backstroke on the final day of action at the Grand Prix meet in Durban on Sunday.
The 18-year-old stormed to victory in a time of 25.09 seconds and was back in the pool a little later to record a B qualifying time in the 200m backstroke, winning in 1:58.34 – just 0.27 seconds off the A qualifying mark.
Fellow Pretoria swimmers Kaylene Corbett and Lara van Niekerk also put in promising early-season performances.
Corbett took victory in the 200m breaststroke in an A qualifying time of 2:25.81 – almost a full 10 seconds ahead of her nearest challenger.
Van Niekerk, meanwhile, swam an A qualifier in the heats of the 50m breaststroke, finishing in a time of 30.65. Her time in Sunday morning’s final was 31.04, but still saw her finishing a second and a half in front of Corbett.
Photo: Gaby Benjamin
“I’m happy – especially with the Olympic qualifying time in the 100m breaststroke. The other events didn’t go as well as I hoped, like the 50m breaststroke,” said Van Niekerk afterwards.
She was pleased with the time she recorded, although it is far from the time she is aiming for if she wants to do well at the world championships
“I still managed to go 30.6 which is actually good considering I haven’t done any front-end speed… I need to keep in mind that we are in hard training. Now I know exactly where I am in the training so it’s just a matter of getting that last little bit of fitness and the front-end speed going,” Van Niekerk remarked.
Competitors will need to swim qualifying times at the SA National Championships in Gqeberha from 12-16 April to book their places on the team to the World Championships, which take place in Fukuoka, Japan from 23-30 July 2023.
Photo: Gaby Benjamin
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