Swimmers Rebecca Meder and Matt Sates book their world championships spots

JOHANNESBURG - Rebecca Meder and Matt Sates achieved world championships qualifying marks on the second day of the SA National Swimming Championships.

The National Championships are happening at Newton Park Swimming Pool in Gqeberha from 9-13 April.

Meder and Sates will join Pieter Coetzé on the team in Singapore later this year.
The Olympian finished first in the 200m medley, speeding to victory in a time of 2:10.39 to book a place at the global event later and also set a new national record.

New Zealand-based swimmer Meder owned the previous record of 2:10.67, which she set at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

“I will say I'm very surprised with a 2:10.3. We thought at least the 2:11 low, maybe sneak in a 2:10 high, but to break my own SA record and to go a 2:10.3 is mind-blowing, so I’m really happy with that,” she said to swim.org.

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On Thursday, Matt Sates also added his name to the list of qualifiers as he cruised to victory in the 200m individual medley in 1:58.83.

“It's nice going close to my best times again,” said Sates afterwards. “A nice relief to do it, to qualify for worlds is always nice, because it’s every swimmer’s goal to do it, and so it’s a privilege to go,” said Sates.

The 21-year-old added the 200m butterfly gold to his rapidly growing collection of titles at these championships, winning in a time of 1:57.71.

The Pietermaritzburg swimmer is entered into 10 events.

A surprise record came from Michaela de Villiers, who claimed her first senior long course national title in the women’s 50m backstroke, where she out swam outgunned Jessica Thompson to the gold in a new national mark of 28.25 seconds.

“I am so happy about it. It's very exciting, not something I expected, so very, very happy. I don't really train backstroke, so it’s especially surprising because of that, but it feels really good. I think freestyle training actually kind of relates, so I’m very happy about it,” said de Villiers.

And several more para-swimming records fell on Thursday night with Naseerah du Toit bettering the SA mark she set in the morning heats of the S8 100m butterfly with a speedy 1:47.38 in the final.

Paralympian Christian Sadie swam 28.72 in the S7 50m freestyle to better the national mark of 28.75 seconds he set at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, while James Willers set a new SA S10 200m butterfly record of 2:43.51.