Meiring is impressed by his swimmer’s heroics during SA Champs
Six of the swimmers led by Rocco Meiring of TuksSwimming, probably South Africa's best swimming coach, qualified at the recent national championship for the World Championships in Japan later this year.
TuksSwimming’s head coach Rocco Meiring is known to believe in hard work and the results of his swimmers at last week’s national championships in the Eastern Cape prove that his strategy is working.
During the South African Championships in Gqeberha, six of his protégés qualified to compete at the World Championships in Japan.
One of the feel-good stories for Meiring is that of Emma Chelius. She qualified in the 50m-freestyle swimming a time of 24.78s during a time trial at the championships. She just missed out on doing so in the final.
“I felt like I still had more to give. It’s always nice when all those small details which is inculcated by my coach during practice come together in a race, so I wanted another crack at it. I’m thrilled that it paid off, and I feel relieved and happy it’s done,” said Chelius after the event.
According to Meiring, Chelius has had problems with an elbow injury since the Birmingham Commonwealth.
“Emma could only start serious training in November last year. For now, her focus is only to be competitive over 50 metres,” he explained.
Photo: Swimming SA
Meiring was also impressed by Erin Gallagher’s performances. She qualified in the 50m (26.31s) and 100-metre butterfly (57.84s) events.
“What is exciting about Erin’s performances is that she is starting to swim the times she did a few years back,” said Meiring.
Matt States qualified in the 100m-butterfly (51.91s). The 19-year-old only joined TuksSwimming 12 weeks ago after he made a name for himself as a swimmer in Natal.
“Matt has done well to qualify. His whole life changed when he came to Tuks. It will take him some time to adapt to his new training regime,” Meiring remarked.
It seems as if the 18-year-old Pieter Coetzé is getting faster every time he competes. During the national championships, he won all three backstroke events. Coetzé set an African record, winning the 100m-backstroke in a time of 52.78s. It was the second time he had broken the record in less than a year. Last year during the World Junior Championships in Peru, he swam 52.95s.
Coetzé came within two-hundredths of a second on improving one of the older SA men’s swimming records. He powered to victory in 24.36 in the 50m-backstroke, placing him top in the world this year but just short of Gerhard Zandberg’s 2009 mark.
The Tuks swimmers who achieved A qualifying times for the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, are: Emma Chelius (50m freestyle), Duné Coetzee (400 and 800m freestyle), Kaylene Corbett (200m breaststroke), Erin Gallagher (50 and100m butterfly), Tatjana Schoenmaker (50, 100 and 200m breaststroke), Pieter Coetzé (50, 100m and 200m backstroke) and Matt Sates (100m butterfly).
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