SWIMMING NEWS – The SA National Aquatic Championships successfully concluded on Friday night with nine athletes clocking 12 Fina Qualification times and seven Para-swimmers posting 14 IPC Qualifying times during the five day competition, which took place at the Kings Park Aquatics Centre in Durban.
In the 50m freestyle, Brad Tandy raced to a Fina Qualification time of 21.92 in the morning heats session but was not able to better that time in the finals, touching the wall with a golden 22.25 ahead of Douglas Erasmus in 22.55 and Ryan Coetzee in 22.60.
Erin Gallagher celebrated her win in the women's 50m freestyle when she clocked 25.14; just 0.10secs over the Fina required 25.04, with Emma Chelius a close second in 25.38, while Olivia Nel and Tayla Lovemore shared the bronze medal when they both finished in 26.01.
Rebecca Meder added yet another gold medal to her tally, this time in the 200m individual medley in 2:14.44, ahead of Marlies Ross in 2:18.44 and Christin Mundell in 2:21.01, while the men's top spot was claimed by Eben Vorster in 2:02.71, followed by Neil Fair in 2:04.23 and Louw Oberholzer in 2:04.82.
In the long-distance 1 500m freestyle, Abi Meder, Hannah Robertson and Kate Beavon made up the medal podium in 17:15.59, 17:19.21 and 17:23.08, while in the men's 800m freestyle, the gold, silver and bronze medals went to Josh Dannhauser, Brent Szurdoki and Botswana's James Freeman in 8:03.06, 8:04.94 and 8:07.67, respectively.
