Armand Landmann proved the star of the third day of the SA Short Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday.
Having missed the qualifying time for the World Short Course Championships in Friday’s 50m freestyle final, Landmann managed to achieve the required mark in a specially arranged time trial, finishing in 21.05 seconds.
That saw the 18-year-old become the fourth swimmer at this event to book his ticket to the world championships taking place in Beijing, China from 1-6 December.
“I feel I was really hungry for the race, and I was super excited coming into the time trial because I knew, in the finals, I made a few mistakes that I could have fixed,” said Landmann afterwards. “I'm glad I got the opportunity to do a time trial and fix those little things.”
Describing what those fixes were, the Pretoria teen added: “I focused more on keeping my head down and the tumble… Then coming back in the finals, I breathed four times in the 25m, and that's really bad. But I fixed that this morning in the time trial.
“There are no words for me… I'm really excited.”
No other swimmers achieved automatic qualifying times on Saturday, but several did swim B qualifying times, which means they can still be selected for those respective events.
Among them was Olympian Duné Coetzee, who claimed victory in the 200m freestyle in a time of 1 minute 56.78 seconds. She had already booked her ticket to China with a qualifying time in the 400m freestyle.
“I really just wanted to go for it and give my everything. I told [coach] Wayne [Riddin] this morning that I want to go 1:56, and he said: ‘Go 1:57, and if you go 1:56, that's a bonus.’ So, wow. I'm so, so happy.”
Coetzee’s Pietermaritzburg teammate Guy Brooks also managed to achieve a B qualifying time in the men’s 200m freestyle. After storming out at a blistering pace, he held on to win in 1:44.73.
“The plan was to go out 51 [seconds] and I went a second and a half faster than that. I definitely paid for it. I felt it on that last 50m, but I got the job done… Can't be upset with a lifetime PB, so I'll take it,” said Brooks afterwards.
Also thrilled with his performance on Saturday was Shaun Thomas, who took a massive three seconds off his previous best in the 200m breaststroke to claim the title in 2:09.89, also a B qualifying mark.
“It was a goal of mine. But to actually see it on the board is really cool,” said the TUKS civil engineering student afterwards.
Thomas added that he had gained great inspiration from Olympic champion Tatjana Smith’s presence at these championships.
“It's amazing to see. I've never really seen her race a lot. I'm kind of new to the scene… and I missed training with her at TUKS, so to actually see her and have the vibe around 200 breast now is really cool.”
Smith swam in the heats of the 200m breaststroke, recording the fastest time of the morning in 2:23.27, but having shifted her focus to the 50m event, she opted to withdraw from the evening final.
Another B qualifier on Saturday came from 19-year-old Sofia French, who claimed victory in the 400m individual medley in 4:45.79.
“Going into the race, I told myself to just go for it, there's nothing to lose, and let's just try my best. And then during the race, I felt so strong…” said an elated French, who explained she was aiming for the qualifying time in the 200m individual medley rather than the 400m event. “You know that quote ‘God is within her, she will not fail’ was just in my brain constantly, and I think that gave me strength.”
Meanwhile, an impressive evening swim from Jarden Eaton saw him complete a butterfly sweep, adding the 50m title to his 100m and 200m butterfly golds. He powered to victory in a time of 23.50 seconds to complete the sweep.
“It was in my mind [to win all three], but all I wanted to do was my best, and I think I managed to do it, so I'm happy with it,” he said.
Kat Swanepoel was once again in record-breaking form in the Para swimming events. The Johannesburg star broke her own national record in the S5 50m freestyle in the morning heats in 44.12 seconds before going even quicker in the evening, bettering the mark to 43.49.
“Today was another good day in the pool,” said the former world champion. “Broke the SA record in the S5 50m free this morning. It was a bit of a messy race and I battled with the heat so really happy to come back in the evening and fix some of the technical errors and lower this morning's record in the