The 2019 South African National Aquatic Championships and FINA World Championships Trials got underway at the Kings Park Aquatic Centre in Durban on Monday.<\/p>\n
Olympian Chad le Clos<\/strong> was in top form as he cruised to the gold medal in both the 200m butterfly and the 100m freestyle, clocking a FINA Qualification time of 1:56.21 in the butterfly and a fast 49.75 in the freestyle, just 0.95secs under the 48.80 requirement.<\/p>\n The silver and bronze in the 200m butterfly were claimed by Ethan du Preez<\/strong> in 1:58.24 and Eben Vorster<\/strong> in 1:58.44, while Ryan Coetzee<\/strong> and Zane Waddell<\/strong> took home the second and third place in the 100m freestyle in 49.84 and 50.28, respectively.<\/p>\n In the 100m freestyle, Erin Gallagher<\/strong>\u2019s quick start won her the gold medal in a FINA Qualification time of 54.34 ahead of Aimee Canny<\/strong> in 56.33 and Emma Chelius<\/strong> in 56.43, while in the 800m freestyle, Kate Beavon<\/strong> walked away with the gold medal in 8:59.38, followed by Kristin Bellingan<\/strong> in 9:01.84 and Abi Meder<\/strong> in 9:03.93.<\/p>\n Dune Coetzee<\/strong> narrowly missed out on a FINA Qualification time when she clocked a golden 2:10.89 in the 200m butterfly, just 1.68secs under the required 2:09.21, while Emma Christianson<\/strong> claimed the silver in 2:16.66 and Trinity Hearne<\/strong> the bronze in 2:19.92.<\/p>\n The long-distance 1500m freestyle title was won by Josh Dannhauser<\/strong> in 15.24.55, followed by Henre Louw<\/strong> in 15.49.32 and Righardt Muller<\/strong> in 15.52.56.<\/p>\n In the 4x100m freestyle relay, KZN\u2019s Matthew Bosch, Calvin Coetzee, Daniel Ronaldson<\/strong> and Ryan Coetzee<\/strong> bagged the gold in 3:26.10 ahead of the Free State\u2019s Vorster, Cullen Thomas, Kobus Groenewald<\/strong> and Gawie<\/strong> Nortje<\/strong> in 3:27.00 and the Eastern Cape\u2019s Christopher Reid, Alaric<\/strong> and Alard Basson<\/strong> and Martin Wolmarans<\/strong> in 3:27.13, while the Western Cape ladies\u2019 quartet of Chelius, Canny, Olivia Nel<\/strong> and Inge Weidemann<\/strong> won their respective relay in 3:48.78, followed by KZN\u2019s Rebecca Mede<\/strong>r, Gallagher, Kristen de Goede<\/strong> and Ambrin Pienaar i<\/strong>n 3:52.22 and Tshwane\u2019s Coetzee, Lindsay McLeod, Veronique Rossouw<\/strong> and Marlies Ross<\/strong> in 3:54.05.<\/p>\n In the para events, the 50m breaststroke (S14-15)medal podium consisted of Aaron Putz<\/strong> in 34.06, Grenate Haupt<\/strong> in 36.59 and Sandile Shezi<\/strong> in 38.10, while the S1-13 category gold medal went to Johann van Heerden<\/strong> (SB10) in 31.77, the silver to Kaleb van der Merwe<\/strong> (SB8) in 39.82 and the bronze to Gift Mncube<\/strong> (SB7) in 44.63.<\/p>\n On the ladies\u2019 side, Michaela Kretzen, Cornelia Fowler<\/strong> and Mia van der Merwe<\/strong> topped the 50m breaststroke in 48.09, 49.46 and 1:00.91, while the S1-13 top places went to Cornelle Leach<\/strong> (SB12) and Melisca Everson<\/strong> (SB9) in 42.58 and 1:14.94, respectively.<\/p>\n Kretzen also won the 100m backstroke in 1:23.88, with the S1-13 category gold medal going to Paula van Zyl<\/strong> (S10) in 1:30.43, while on the men\u2019s side, it was March Roach<\/strong> (S15) in 1:04.79 and Franco Smit<\/strong> (S12) in 1:05.25 that grabbed the backstroke gold medals.<\/p>\n The SA National Aquatic Championships will continue tomorrow with the heats session starting at 09:30, while the finals will begin at 17:00 daily.<\/p>\n The staging of this event has been made possible through the support provided by Swimming SA partners, Sport and Recreation South Africa, SASCOC, National Lotteries Commission, Arena and Rand Water.<\/p>\n Qualifying Times \u2013 FINA World Championships \u2013 Day 01:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with Swimming South Africa<\/i>. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact<\/i> Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 2019 South African National Aquatic Championships and FINA World Championships Trials got underway at the Kings Park Aquatic Centre in Durban on Monday. Olympian Chad le Clos was in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3915,"featured_media":195594,"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":[3,10],"tags":[75930,25134,27699],"class_list":["post-363225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world","tag-2019-south-african-championships","tag-chad-le-clos","tag-erin-gallagher"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n\n