The SA Short Course Championships wrapped up in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday, with several swimmers adding their names to the mix for selection for the World Short Course Championships by achieving B qualifying times.
While that doesn’t ensure automatic qualification, it means they can still be selected for the SA team to compete in Beijing, China from 1-6 December.
Stephanie Houtman claimed victory in the 1500m freestyle in a time of 16 minutes 13.28 seconds while Duné Coetzee was second in 16:32.87, with both swimmers dipping under the B qualifying mark
“I would have liked to go a bit faster, but I'm happy with how I felt in the race and considering how my 800 went, I'm very happy with the race,” said Houtman afterwards.
“The 800 didn't go the way I wanted, but I went back and looked at my mistakes and I tried to work on it in my 1500. I think I was a bit too much in my head, so I focused more on my turns and my stroke and where my head position was, and I felt much smoother in the 1500.”
Later in the afternoon, Coetzee capped off a successful four days by adding the 100m freestyle to her haul of four gold medals, winning in a time of 54.83 seconds. Coetzee’s other three titles came in the 200, 400 and 800m freestyle, with an A qualifying time in the 400m event.
Speaking about her performances, Coetzee reckoned: “I'm stoked. It was so fun, and I felt the best that I've felt in years of racing. It was a lot of nerves the first two days for the 400 and the 800, but after that, the job was done in the morning of the 400, so I just enjoyed the rest of it and the last two days have been the most fun I've had in a very long time.”
There were three B qualifiers in the men’s 100m freestyle with Guy Brooks taking the title in 47.59, just touching ahead of Armand Coetzee (47.84) and Kaydn Naidoo (48.30). All the finals session results featured handheld times because of a timing system glitch, but the trio also achieved the B qualifying time in the morning heats.
Naidoo also unofficially added the 100m individual medley B qualifier to his achievements after winning the title in 54.75 seconds, having missed the required time by just one hundredth of a second in the morning heats. Naidoo was thrilled with the win after claiming three silver medals in the butterfly events.
“I did feel quite a lot faster. This morning, I went mainly on distance per stroke. So now this one felt a lot faster, really trying to work each lap, and the underwaters as well,” said Naidoo afterwards.
“It's really nice to finally win this. I was ranked third for this last year so I got bronze, happy to skip the silver and go straight to gold.”
Meanwhile, Matthew Caldwell completed his hat-trick of titles by claiming victory in the men’s 1500m freestyle in a time of 15:13.33 – also a B qualifier – to add to his 400 and 800m freestyle golds.
“I just really went out there and tried to enjoy myself the whole way… A lot of ups and downs, but happy, happy,” he said.
Georgia Nel was the other swimmer to achieve a B qualifier on Sunday, swimming 1:01.65 in her morning heat of the 100m individual medley.
“I was very, very happy with that swim [in the heats],” said Nel. “I was looking to go a little faster. I would have really liked to have gotten the A time, but I can't be upset with a B time and a win and a PB.”