Both Tatjana Smith and Michael Houlie achieved their second World Championships qualifying times on day two of the SA Short Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Friday.
Smith added the 100m breaststroke to the 50m title she won on Thursday, sailing to victory in a time of 1:04.00. That saw her well under the qualifying time for the World Short Course Championships, and just 0.11 of a second off her own national record.
The 100m breaststroke Olympic champion admitted afterwards that having switched her focus to the 50m event since her return to competitive swimming, the second half of Friday’s race had hurt more than usual.
“I think in terms of just my stroke and stuff, this is probably more my comfort zone. But obviously with the focus being on the 50m, I maybe don't have as much at the end,” she said.
“But I'm very surprised with the 33.9 [seconds] coming back, especially not really training for the back end. It just shows you the 22 years of base training I had with Rocco [Meiring] is still in there somewhere.”
Smith confirmed that, despite her focus on the 50m, having qualified for the 100m event, she intends to compete over the distance at the World Short Course Championships, which run from 1-6 December in Beijing, China.
Houlie also intends to compete over both distances after adding the men’s 100m breaststroke to his 50m title, taking the victory in a qualifying time of 57.30 seconds. Chris Smith was second in 57.88, so achieving a B qualifying mark.
“I'm kind of glad it's over,” admitted Houlie afterwards. “For me, coming into this gala, the goal was just to get feedback, to get a baseline going into the racing over the next couple weeks, and also building to World Short Course, so I'm really happy with that. That's the first time that I'm really racing 100m short course metres in a few years, and so it's good to get out there and to refine my process.”
MORRIS CELEBRATES IN STYLE
Earlier in the evening, Grace Morris celebrated the end of her matric prelims by defending her 200m backstroke title with a B qualifying time, winning in 2:08.78.
“It feels amazing. I didn't have a lot of expectation coming into this gala. But I just really wanted to enjoy it and race it because I love it, so it feels really, really good,” said the 18-year-old, admitting balancing training and studying has been tricky.
“Actually, I think that sometimes when you swim the best is when you don't put so much pressure on yourself and you actually just do it because you love it.”
Fellow teenager Armand Landmann also achieved a B qualifying time, which means they can both still be selected for the World Short Championships team.
The 18-year-old Landmann successfully defended his 50m freestyle title, winning in 21.39 seconds.
“It was a very good race. I just focused on keeping my head down. And I’m very happy with my time,” he said. “I went a lot faster than last year, so I'm really happy to see some improvement, too.”
Other B qualifiers were achieved in the 800m freestyle, with three swimmers all dipping under the required mark. Duné Coetzee claimed the title in 8 minutes 29.71 seconds, with Callan Lotter second in 8:30.03 and Stephanie Houtman third in 8:36.66.
Matthew Caldwell also secured a B qualifying time in the men’s 800m freestyle, taking the title in 7:56.57.
Meanwhile, in the Para swimming events, Kat Swanepoel set her fifth SA record of the championships. The former world champion swam a time of 1:49.7 in the morning heats of the S5 100m backstroke and then went even quicker in the final, finishing in 1:47.98.
“[I expected] none of it. I haven't tapered at all, I'm in really hard training,” said Swanepoel afterwards. “It's been another tough season of being remotely trained by my coach… but to be in the water and to swim… I love the results and I love being back.”
Swimming action in Pietermaritzburg resumes on Saturday and finishes on Sunday.