DURBAN, South Africa, April 16. CHANELLE Van Wyk put an exclamation point on the third night of swimming with an African record in the women's 50 back semifinal round at the South African National Championships.<\/p>\n
Van Wyk clinched the top seed in the women's 50 back finale with a 28.55 during semis. That performance demolished Charlene Wittstock's 2002 national record of 29.18, and Kirsty Coventry's African record of 28.86 set at the Beijing Olympics. Van Wyk's next target is the shared world record of 27.67 that both Sophie Edington and Zhao Jing have posted.<\/p>\n
"I have been battling with injury to the rotating blades on both of my shoulders, so I am delighted with the time," Van Wyk told Swimming South Africa<\/i>. "I missed the South African record by .01 of a second in the morning heats, so to better Coventry's continental record and to post a world championship A standard qualifying time is really exciting."<\/p>\n
Leone Vorster opened the evening with a top-seeded time of 1:59.67 in the women's 200 free semis. That swim cleared Melissa Corfe's national record of 1:59.76 set April 2008. Coventry qualified second in 2:01.91, while Jessica Pengelly touched third in 2:03.89.<\/p>\n
Jean Basson won the men's 200 free title with a 1:46.64, just off his semifinal time of 1:46.62. Jasper Venter clocked a 1:48.25 for second, while Sebastien Rousseau wound up third in 1:49.36.<\/p>\n
Pengelly earned another final spot, this time with a 2:28.65 in the women's 200 breast semis to show off some versatility. Kathryn Meaklim finished second in 2:29.01 while South African prodigy Jessica Liss, 13, qualified third in 2:30.87.<\/p>\n
Neil Versfeld cruised through the men's 200 breast semis with a top time of 2:13.74, while William Diering qualified second in 2:13.84. Chad Le Clos touched third in 2:16.55. Versfeld's 2:10.06 national record will be the target during finals.<\/p>\n
In the men's 50 back semis, Gerhard Zandberg stopped the clock in 25.67, while Charl van Zyl qualified second in 25.93. Garth Tune wound up third in 25.94.<\/p>\n
Wendy Trott easily won the women's 800 free in 8:31.18, not too far off her record time of 8:26.21 set in Beijing. Paralympic star Natalie Du Toit grabbed second place in 8:59.11, while Rene Warnes took third in 9:03.07. Du Toit's time broke her S9 Paralympic world record time of 9:01.41.<\/p>\n
Elzane Werth followed in the women's 100 fly semis with a top time of 1:00.17, while Mandy Loots took second in 1:00.63. Van Wyk, already the top seed with an African record in the 50 back, qualified third in 1:00.71.<\/p>\n
Lyndon Ferns nearly cleared 52 seconds in the men's 100 fly semis to challenge his national record of 51.90, but settled for a top-seeded time of 52.04. Darian Townsend will provide some record-breaking encouragement in the finale with a second-seeded 52.15. Graeme Moore wrapped up third in 53.06.<\/p>\n
In multi-disability events, Shireen Sapiro won the women's 50 back in 33.52 to set the S10 world record, while Craig Groenewald took home the men's 50 back title in 32.65. Sapiro also won the women's 100 fly in 1:16.55, while Groenewald claimed the men's 100 fly in 1:02.65.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DURBAN, South Africa, April 16. CHANELLE Van Wyk put an exclamation point on the third night of swimming with an African record in the women's 50 back semifinal round at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n