Titans Swimming Club

Congrats to 'local' boy Chad... Making KZN and SA proud.

SILVER 🥈& HISTORY for Chad Le Clos

Fingertip close for sure.

With a total of 18 Commonwealth Games medals, Chad is now among the greatest athletes of all time at the Games!

Lara Van Niekerk - NEW Commonwealth Games Record!!!

🇿🇦 Birmingham, United Kingdom

🏊🏊‍♂️🏊Coming up this evening 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦

The Women's 50m Breaststroke Final.

Crossing our fingers for a top 3 finish. Good luck, ladies. 🏊🏊🏊‍♂️

SSA Press Release

Large SA team gears up for Aquatics World Championships in Budapest

Friday, 17 June 2022 – A team of 66 swimmers, divers, water polo players and artistic swimmers and their coaches are headed for Budapest to represent South Africa at the FINA World Aquatics Championships from 18 June to 3 July.

Heading the medal charge will be a strong team of swimmers, many of them competing at their first World Championships. Among them is Matt Sates, who last year made a name for himself by claiming the overall FINA World Cup title in the short course pool (25m) and recently took the Mare Nostrum series by storm, securing nine gold medals from his nine events contested in the long course pool (50m).

“I have really enjoyed my time in Europe preparing for worlds. Being able to race long course again and have some of the best competition in the world was really exciting,” said the 18-year-old from Pietermaritzburg. “Since then I’ve been training in Turkey with a fast bunch of guys and that has been really good. We all push each other and have a great time doing it.”

Sates will swim in the 200 and 400m individual medley, the 100m butterfly and the 200m freestyle, but a recent cold has meant he will not add the 400m freestyle to his already hectic schedule.

Also training in Turkey was 19-year-old Lara van Niekerk who will be flying the flag for South African breaststrokers in the absence of Olympic champion Tatjana Schoenmaker who has chosen to focus on the Commonwealth Games and will not compete in Budapest.

After beating Schoenmaker in the 100m breaststroke at the National Championships in April, Van Niekerk also put in some impressive performances at the recent Mare Nostrum series, setting a meet record in the 50m breaststroke along the way.

“I am really excited about competing in my first world champs. My performances at the Mare Nostrum series gave me a boost in confidence because I was racing the best in the world and could see where I was in terms of my preparation and what I still needed to work on,” said the Pretoria swimmer. “The time in Europe now racing and training has been exactly what I needed leading up to worlds, and I am feeling ready to race for South Africa.”

Another of the young guns, 18-year-old Pieter Coetzé, has tested positive for Covid and will not be able to participate in Budapest.

Former Olympic champion Chad le Clos will be competing at his seventh World Championships, eager to add to his impressive haul of seven medals – four of them gold.

OPEN WATER

Elsewhere Ruan Breytenbach will take on his first international meet as part of the open water swimming team.

“Training has been hectic, the mileage is way out of my previous experience with swimming… but I’m confident that it will pay off when the racing starts,” he said.

“This will be my first major event in open water as I only competed at nationals due to a friend that encouraged me to do it. My aim is to just enjoy my race as I did at nationals. I will also do my best to get a good position during and after the race,” added Breytenbach who will compete in both the 5km and 10km events.

DIVING

Meanwhile, also heading to her first World Championships is 16-year-old diver Zalika Methula, who will be competing in the individual 1m springboard event.

“I’m very excited and nervous to be competing at world champs,” she admitted. “This will be my first international competition and first time overseas. I’m looking forward to learning and experiencing new things as the competition goes by. I definitely think this is a big step into my diving career.

“World champs is one of the goals I set for myself to accomplish one day, and to accomplish this dream at only 16 years old made it even more startling. Throughout the competition I’ll keep a positive mindset and enjoy every moment of it.”

WATER POLO

South Africa will be represented by both a men’s and women’s water polo team in Budapest. SA women’s coach Delaine Mentoor explained that for the first time the team would hold a training camp before the competition starts.

“No water polo team has had an international training camp ahead of a competition – not even for Olympics – so this is a really positive start for us, that we get to spend time together and go through things and get some rhythm going. We’re very excited that we’ve got some prep time, we can acclimatise so that’s great,” she said.

“All of these girls have been coached by me at some point in the last two years, so I know them well and they know me, so it’s just getting this combination of players to find their rhythm and find what works for us.”

ARTISTIC SWIMMING

Meanwhile, history will be made in the artistic swimming (formerly synchronised swimming) pool as Ayrton Sweeney becomes the first man to represent South Africa in the sport. Having represented the country in swimming for numerous years, Sweeney made the switch a few months ago and will compete in the mixed duet with Laura Strugnell.

“I think Ayrton can vouch for the fact that he had no idea what he got himself into until he was in because it was very different to the training and competition prep he was used to, but he has taken this challenge and succeeded,” said Strugnell, who represented the country at the Tokyo Olympics last year.

“I love swimming with him, I laugh for almost all of the session and I don’t think there is another male swimmer I would rather swim with,” she added.

The swimming programme in Hungary will take place from 18-25 June with the diving being contested from 26 June-3 July. Open water swimming will take place from 26-30 June. Artistic swimming will be contested from 17-25 June with the men’s and women’s water polo tournaments being played from 20 June-3 July.

New day, more Mare Nostrum medals for Coetzé, Sates Pieter Coetzé ensured South Africa continued their gold rush at the Mare Nostrum swimming series on Saturday – claiming two victories on the opening night of the final leg in Canet, France. Matt Sates claimed his eighth gold medal of the week – this time in the 400m individual medley

Matthew Sates opens Mare Nostrum with two golds in Monaco Matthew Sates secured two gold medals on a prolific opening day for the South African swimming squad at the first leg of the Mare Nostrum series in Monaco on Saturday night. The rising teenage star was the first of the South Africans in action in the evening finals, powering to victory in the 400m f...

SSA Press Release.

Veteran Le Clos joins teenage brigade in SA team for Swimming World Championships

Monday, 9 May 2022 – Chad le Clos has been included in the team to represent South Africa at the FINA World Championships for an incredible seventh time.

Swimming South Africa announced the team that will compete at the event in Budapest, Hungary from 18 June to 3 July 2022 with Le Clos leading the charge along with several young guns who will be competing at their first world championships.

Among them is teenage sensation Lara van Niekerk, who beat Olympic 100m breaststroke silver medallist Tatjana Schoenmaker to the national title in that event in April, swimming to the fourth fastest time in the world this year. She’ll be competing in both the 50 and 100m breaststroke.

“Of course, I am so happy to make the team to compete in Budapest, especially since this will be my first World Championships and I have always dreamt about racing the best in the world,” said Van Niekerk. “The past few months have given me a lot of confidence going into races, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. At Worlds I just want to focus on executing my race plan as best I can, and enjoying the whole experience," added the 18-year-old from Pretoria.

Fellow teenagers Matthew Sates (18) and Pieter Coetzé (17), who were part of the SA team at the Tokyo Olympics last year, will also compete in Budapest. Sates broke several junior world records on his way to winning the overall short course (25m) World Cup title in 2021 and he’ll be eager to announce himself on the long course stage (50m) while Coetzé currently boasts the third-fastest time in the world this year in the 200m backstroke.

Speaking about his inclusion in the team, Le Clos said: “I think it’s a big honour because no-one has ever done seven from South Africa that I can remember in recent years so I’m just super-happy to be going to another World Championships of course.” The 30-year-old, who first competed at the event when he was a teenager himself, is likely to compete in the 50, 100, and 200m butterfly.

“I’m really excited – we have a very young team. This is a golden time for South African swimming,” he added referring to the likes of Van Niekerk, Sates, and Coetzé. “It’s phenomenal to see and I really hope that this year they can get in some finals, get on a couple of podiums and win some medals.

“Obviously the Commonwealth Games is also down the line so we’re also very excited about that – two majors this year.”

Several swimmers who have qualified for the World Championships and have been included on the team list have chosen instead to focus only on the Commonwealth Games, which are taking place just a few weeks after the Budapest event.

Meanwhile, also announced by Swimming South Africa were the teams to represent the country in open water swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo.

The swimming programme in Hungary will take place from 18-25 June with the diving being contested from 26 June-3 July. Open water swimming will take place from 26-30 June. Artistic swimming will be contested from 17-25 June with the men’s and women’s water polo tournaments being played from 20 June-3 July.



FULL TEAM:

Swimming:

Aimee Canny (200m freestyle), Emma Chelius (50, 100m freestyle), Pieter Coetzé (50, 100, 200m backstroke), Dune Coetzee (200 butterfly, 200, 400m freestyle), Kaylene Corbett (200m breaststroke), Brendan Crawford (100m breaststroke), Erin Gallagher (100 freestyle), Michael Houlie (50m breaststroke), Stephanie Houtman (1500m freestyle), Clayton Jimmie (50m freestyle), Chad le Clos (50, 100, 200 butterfly), Rebecca Meder (100m back, 200 & 400 IM), Olivia Nel (50m backstroke), Michaela Pulford (800m freestyle), Matthew Randle (200m breaststroke), Matthew Sates (100, 200, 400 freestyle, 200 IM), Tatjana Schoenmaker (50, 100, 200m breaststroke), Lara van Niekerk (50, 100m breaststroke), Inge Weidemann (50m butterfly)



Open water swimming:

Ruan Breytenbach (5km, 10km) Connor Buck (5km, 10km) Amica de Jager (5km, 10km) Catherine van Rensburg (5km, 10km)



Diving:

Grace Brammer (Synchro 3m), Cydney Liebenberg (1m), Kerry-Leigh Morrison (Synchro 3m), Julia Vincent (1m, 3m)



Artistic swimming:

Kaitlyn Doms, Chloe Dundas-Starr, Kathleen Jarvis, Jessica McCarthy, Skye McDonald, Siphokazi Myende, Laura Strugnell, Ayrton Sweeney, Rachel Taylor, Roxanne Thornton, Tayla-Jade Van Huyssteen, Xera Vegter-Maharajh, Casey Williams



Water polo – men:

Ignardus Badenhorst, Dylan Cronje, Todd Howard, Cameron Laurenson, Lwazi Madi, Farouk Mayman, Lonwabo Mfikili, Roarke Olver, Chad Roman, Ross Stone, Jonathan Swanepoel, Dane Tucker, Niall Wheeler



Water polo – women:

Iman Akomolafe, Shakira January, Megan Maartens, Tumaini Macdonell, Nicola Macloed, Chloe Meecham, Hannah Muller, Daniela Passoni, Paige Tancrel, Annie Thornton-Dibb, Ashleigh Vaughn, Ruby Versveld, Esihle Zondo