Jessica Thompson and Chad le Clos kicked off the Bombela Concession Company SA National (25m) Championships in Pietermaritzburg with two titles each on Thursday, both collecting golds in the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly.
18-year-old Thompson claimed a comfortable victory in the 100m freestyle in 54.29 seconds before doing the same in the 50m butterfly in 25.66 seconds
She admitted afterwards, though, that she was hoping she would break the national short course record of 25.54 in the butterfly, a mark which has been held by Tayla Lovemore for the last seven years.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but that is kind of what I was going for. The record has been standing since 2018,” she said afterwards.
“But to walk away with two PBs, I’m really happy with that. I didn’t expect that, especially considering the block of training I’ve had. So I’m really happy with how I performed tonight.”
Le Clos was also happy with his day’s work. He finished a body-length in front of the field in the 100m freestyle, winning in 47.55 seconds, before completing an impressive victory in the 50m butterfly in 22.79 seconds. Second place was secured by 18-year-old Tai Pearson in 23.64, while third was taken by a swimmer more than half Le Clos’s age – 15-year-old Eric Kotze in 23.79 seconds.
“It was good, I’m happy,” said a relaxed Le Clos, who has returned to competition after an extended break. “I’m in a really good space… I’ve only been seriously training under a proper programme for the last six weeks. This year I was kind of floating to it’s nice to swim decent and it’s nice to see the youngsters swim really well.”
Lara van Niekerk was equally pleased with her opening day’s performances in Pietermaritzburg after claiming the 100m breaststroke title in 1 minute 05.98 seconds. She followed that up with second place in the 100m individual medley, an event she just swims for fun, in 1:02.78.
Just a week ago, the double Commonwealth Games champion was struggling with a knee niggle so was pleased just to be in action at this event.
“My knee started acting up a week ago, to the point where I couldn’t kick breaststroke in training, so I’m just really grateful to be here,” she said afterwards, saying before the injury she was expecting great things at these championships. “It kind of took the expectations away… Having the knee thing last week I think took some pressure off me and I’m just happy I could do that time.”
The men’s 100m breaststroke title was secured by World Aquatics Championships finalist Chris Smith, who reached the wall in a time of 58.24 seconds.
“It felt OK. I didn’t taper or anything for this meet so I’m happy with the time,” said the 19-year-old.
There were first-time national titles for both the winners in the 200m backstroke, with Grace Morris claiming the women’s title in a new personal best of 2:09.56 and Adrian van Wyk the men’s in 1:56.42.
“The turnaround was pretty tight from heats to finals, there wasn’t a lot of time, so I’m not going to lie – the last 50 hurt a lot,” admitted Van Wyk, who only took up swimming seriously around two years ago. “The plan is just to get better from here, so let’s see how it goes.”
While her main focus is on the 50m freestyle, Caitlin de Lange raced to victory in the 100m individual medley in a personal best time of 1:00.69.
“It was a lot better than this morning. This morning I messed up a few of the turns, from the back to breast especially, so I just wanted to focus on the turns and I feel like it was better, but it’s definitely something I can work on in training to get under 1 minute,” she said.
The men’s 200m individual medley was easily won by visiting Swedish swimmer Linus Kahl in 54.61 seconds, meaning the national title will go to second-placed Giano Dos Santos, who finished in 58.28 seconds.
Bombela Concession Company SA National (25m) Championships action continues in Pietermaritzburg on Friday and runs until Sunday.