Michael Houlie and Chris Smith became the first South African pair to line up in the same 50m breaststroke final at the World Short Course Swimming Championships since 2016 in Budapest on Sunday.
Houlie, a former Youth Olympic champion in the event, was fifth at the turn in the final but dropped to seventh, finishing in 25.73 seconds. 18-year-old Smith, who set a new world junior record of 25.66 on his way to winning his semifinal on Saturday, was eighth in 25.77 seconds. It has nevertheless been a breakthrough event for the breaststrokers, with both competing in their first World Short Course Championships final.
The tightly contested race was won by China’s 100m breaststroke champion Haiyang Qin, who powered to victory in 25.42 seconds with Turkey’s Emre Sakci and Russian Kirill Prigoda sharing the silver after both finishing in 25.56. Just 0.35 of a second separated first and eighth place in the final.
While Houlie said afterwards that he wasn’t satisfied with his performance in the race, he was pleased to have made the final and knows what to work on going forward.
Other South Africans in action on the final day of competition in Budapest included Hannah Pearse, who finished eighth in her heat and 24th overall in the 200m backstroke in 2:08.41 while 17-year-old Kris Mihaylov was 44th overall in the 200m freestyle after finishing ninth in his heat in 1:47.00.
The women’s 4x100m medley relay team of Milla Drakopoulos, Lara van Niekerk, Rebecca Meder and Jessica Thompson set a new African record of 3:57.68 on their way to sixth place in the morning heats, but it was not quick enough to reach the evening final.
Kian Keylock, Matthew Randle, Ruard van Renen and Mihaylov joined forces for the men’s 4x100m medley relay, but their time of 3:34.72 for sixth place in the heats was also not fast enough to see them through to the final.
The championships in Budapest came to an end with four South African swimmers (Rebecca Meder, Ruard van Renen, Michael Houlie and Chris Smith) having reached finals in their respective events, with Meder being the pick of them, having progressed to the finals of all four of her events.
Focus now switches to the long course (50m) pool with the SA National Championships set for April 2025 and the World Championships in Singapore scheduled for 27 July - 3 August 2025.