Rebecca Meder provided the highlight for the South African team on the opening day of the swimming competition at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Sunday.
The 20-year-old stormed to a new South African record in the 200m individual medley heats, taking almost half a second off the previous mark she set at the SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha in April by finishing in 2:10.95.
That saw Meder qualifying 11th fastest for the evening semifinals where she swam slightly slower, finishing in sixth place in 2:11.16 to just miss out on the final by two places.
“I was very, very happy with my swim this morning,” said Meder.
“Coming in I just had to stay relaxed and stay focused.”
“I didn't underestimate that I had that time in me but to do it in the heats swim this morning was a big surprise and I landed up touching the wall and actually getting quite emotional seeing that time. It didn;t feel that fast but everything kind of fell into place and to break my SA record by just under half a second was a huge barrier for me and getting that 2:10 mark is amazing,” she added.
"I knew my butterfly would be strong. I focused on my backstroke, I was very surprised at how strong my breaststroke was and then to come home on that freestyle, I just put my head down. It's a dogfight to the end.”
As for her evening swim, Meder added: "To do a back-to-back swim like that and to do a 2:11.1... it's the second fastest time I've ever swum in the 200IM, I can't look at it and be upset and to come 10th in the world again is incredible for me. It's all looking good for Paris 2024."
The Durban swimmer will compete again in the 400m individual medley and the 4x100m freestyle mixed relay.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Trinity Hearne was back in action with the SA x100m freestyle relay team along with Aimee Canny, Emma Chelius and Milla Drakopoulos, finishing 17th overall in the heats in a time of 3:45.54.
Other South Africans were Michael Houlie, who finished 30th overall in the 100m breaststroke heats in 1:01.58 and 43-year-old veteran Roland Schoeman who finished 44th overall in the 50m butterfly in a time of 24.02, some way off the SA and African record of 22.90 he set at the World Championships in Rome 14 years ago.
Swimming continues on Monday morning with both Tatjana Schoenmaker and Lara van Niekerk kicking off their World Championships campaigns in the 100m breaststroke heats.
Cape Times