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2022 Wrap: SA athletes deliver in the pool and on the track

cricket28 December 2022 21:36| © SuperSport
By:Karien Jonckheere
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The year after the Olympic Games can often be a rather anti-climactic one, with the so-called Cinderella sports fading back into the background. But that was far from the case in 2022, with a Commonwealth Games and several world championships to keep the South African swimmers and athletes in the headlines. Here are five talking points from the pool and track.

THE EMERGENCE OF ANOTHER BRILLIANT BREASTSTROKER

The SA public started to hear rumblings of the name Lara van Niekerk when the then-18-year-old schoolgirl got the better of double Olympic medallist Tatjana Schoenmaker in the 100m breaststroke at the SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha in April. With that performance, she also qualified for both the World Championships and Commonwealth Games later in the year.

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While several of the more established stars chose to focus solely on the Commonwealth Games, it was something of a masterstroke from Van Niekerk’s coach, Eugene da Ponte, to suggest a trip to the World Championships in Budapest just before then to get rid of the nerves of competing at her first major senior competition.

It proved to be a genius decision, the talented teen picking up South Africa’s only medal of the meet with bronze in the 50m breaststroke and getting a massive confidence boost before heading to Birmingham for her first Commonwealth Games.

It was there that she really shone, claiming double breaststroke gold with victories in both the 50 and 100m events while breaking multiple records along the way, to become SA’s most successful swimmer at the Games.

Van Niekerk subsequently underwent surgery for a bone in her foot which had been causing pain for many years. Then despite several weeks out of the pool to recover, she stepped up yet again at the World Short Course Championships in December, lowering her own African 50m breaststroke record each time she dived into the Melbourne pool and leaving Australia with a silver medal.

Considering she was beaten only by the new world record holder, Ruta Meilutyte, it was a phenomenal result off very little actual breaststroke training and bodes especially well for the year ahead.

TATJANA STILL THE 200M QUEEN

While Van Niekerk was splashing up a storm, Tatjana Schoenmaker was preparing for her first major competition since her sensational world record-breaking performance at the Tokyo Olympics where she claimed both a gold and silver medal.

The shy Pretoria star admitted it had been tough to adjust to life in the spotlight after those Games and she felt immense pressure heading into the Commonwealth Games. But she duly did the business, defending her 200m breaststroke title with ease to ensure she remained unbeaten in the event at international level for another year.

But it was her friend and training partner Kaylene Corbett’s bronze medal in the same race that had Schoenmaker even more excited – a tearful medal ceremony marking the end of a truly stressful period for the Olympic champion. She admitted she was far from her best form, but she had still prevailed – the mark of a true champion.

The South African women had certainly made their mark on the breaststroke events in Birmingham, Van Niekerk taking 50 and 100m gold, Schoenmaker the 200 gold and 100 silver and Corbett the 200 bronze – ensuring there were two green and gold tracksuits on every women’s breaststroke podium.

CHAD IS BACK

While his young teammates were flying the flag high, veteran Chad le Clos had to pull himself up from a very dark place. Having revealed his struggles with depression after a traumatic event and a subsequent lack of motivation and focus, Le Clos then got sick and withdrew from the World Championships in Budapest after one race, meaning he failed to win a medal at the event for the first time since 2011.

He then went to the Commonwealth Games trying to surpass the record of 17 individual medals won by any athlete in Games history. But that also didn’t go according to plan. Needing two medals to break the record, Le Clos managed to claim silver in the 200m butterfly but then missed out in the 100m.

His last chance, the 4x100m medley relay. When one of his teammates missed the bus to get to the morning heats, Le Clos was understandably fuming.

In the meantime, Australian Emma McKeon eventually claimed eight medals of her own to set the new record at 20. But Le Clos picked himself up and a change of environment – to train under coach Dirk Lange in Frankfurt seems to have made all the difference.

A newly focused Le Clos emerged to take part in the World Cup series where he claimed multiple victories by reverting to his old tactics of hanging back and then making the decisive move in the closing metres of the race.

This was a self-proclaimed Chad 2.0 and one who went on to claim a memorable – and emotional – butterfly double, in the 100 and 200m at the World Short Course Championships in December.

That means the 30-year-old is now only two medals away from Ryan Lochte’s all-time record of 14 individual world short course titles. The true test now though is whether he can convert that form to the long course pool, maintain the momentum, and push on to Paris 2024.

THE NEXT-GEN SWIMMERS STEP UP

Another pair of teenagers, Matt Sates and Pieter Coetzé, were determined to make an impression in 2022. While Sates came down with flu and didn’t produce the performance he was after at the Commonwealth Games, he bounced back well in both the World Cup series and the World Short Course Championships in December.

The 19-year-old from Pietermaritzburg claimed the 200m individual medley gold in Melbourne and bronze in the 400m individual medley on his way to breaking Le Clos’s national record in the event.

A promising sign is that he continues to get quicker and 2023 will be a test of his consistency, particularly when competing across several events at one meet.

Meanwhile, Coetzé initially made a name for himself by qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics when he was just 16. Understandably, he didn’t make too much of an impression at the Games themselves but that came a year later in Birmingham where he clinched a gold a silver and a bronze medal – meaning he reached the podium in all three backstroke events.

At the World Short Course Championships at the end of the year, he admitted he wasn’t too sure what to expect as his training is mainly geared to long-course swimming (in a 50m pool). He still impressed, however, just missing out on medalling but showing great promise in breaking several long-standing African records.

The 18-year-old has committed to studying and training in the USA at UCLA, Berkley, where former Olympic champion Ryan Murphy is based which can only bode well for his career going forward, but there’s still the small matter of school that needs to be completed before setting off.

ATHLETICS STILL IN THE MIX

While perhaps a little more was expected from the country’s track and field athletes (when compared with recent years where they have punched well above their weight on the world stage) there were still several highlights to celebrate during the past year – particularly from the up-and-coming contingent.

400m runner Lythe Pillay produced a PB when it mattered most as he and shot putter Miné de Klerk claimed gold for the country at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Colombia.

Whether they can convert those performances to success at senior level will, of course, remain to be seen, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

There were promising Diamond League victories for Luxolo Adams in the 200m in Paris and Akani Simbine in the 100m in Stockholm as well as a stunning victory for 800m runner Prudence Sekgodiso at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi.

Visa delays caused major issues for many of the athletes hoping to compete at the World Championships in the USA in July and the South African squad left empty-handed but will be hopeful of a turnaround with another shot at world titles coming in 2023.

Meanwhile, veteran visually impaired athlete Jonathan Ntutu’s gold in the T12 100m provided one of the high points of Team SA’s Commonwealth Games campaign – as did former Paralympic champion Charl du Toit’s silver in his final race before retirement.

But perhaps the most exciting of all was the fact that there was also a flicker of hope that world record holder Wayde van Niekerk may finally be edging back to his best, with a speedy 44.33 to end the season in Switzerland. Watch this space…

 

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