There were two more continental records broken by South African swimmers on the final day of the World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore on Saturday.
Christian Sadie, who already has a silver and two bronze medals from these championships, set a new African record in the S7 100m freestyle, but just missed out on another podium spot. He stopped the clock at 1 minute 04.77 seconds on his way to fourth place. Gold was taken by Ukrainian Andrii Trusov in a new championship record of 59.90 seconds.
“The finals went really well. I was able to execute what I needed and it was an amazing way to finish off the gala with a personal best time by a second and a little bit, as well as another African record so I’m super-stoked with the swim,” he said afterwards.
As for finishing the championships with three medals, Sadie added: “I couldn’t have asked for a better gala. I think it’s definitely shown the work that we’ve put in, and the pieces are starting to fall into place that we’ve invested in for a long time so it’s nice to see it paying off.”
Nathan Hendricks once again showed some fine form on his way to an African record of 2:16.55 in the SM13 200m individual medley. But it was ultimately not enough to secure a medal as he finished in sixth spot, with Russian Egor Shchitkovskii securing the gold in 2:06.07.
“The 200IM I was quite happy with. I was a bit sick, but I was happy with how I performed, getting that record,” said Hendricks.
“It makes me excited because I know there’s still a lot I can improve on, especially in that race – the backstroke I can improve on, the breaststroke, and the turns. I’m pretty excited that I can still drop time in it,” added the 20-year-old.
The other South Africans in action on Saturday were Alani Ferreira and Danika Vyncke, who both finished sixth in their respective heats of the SM13 200m individual medley in the morning and did not progress to the evening final.
Head coach Theo Verster said after the end of the championships that the feeling in the Team South Africa camp is one of excitement for the future with an eye on the next World Championships in 2027 and ultimately the Paralympic Games in 2028.
“We’re super-happy with the performances of Team South Africa. It’s a nice build on what we achieved in 2023 when we got two golds, a silver and a bronze and it’s very refreshing to see that we could pull this off with Christian and managing quite a few spots where we couldn’t convert into medals, we got quite close to which was very good to see,” said Verster.
A few factors affected what could have been an even greater medal haul, with former world champion Kat Swanepoel unable to compete as she is undergoing treatment, and Ferreira being reclassified into the S13 class, having to compete against athletes with less severe visual impairments.
“Unfortunately, with Alani being upgraded to S13, that cost her a medal. If she was still S12, she would definitely have swum another medal for South Africa so that’s quite sad. But hopefully by 2027, with a review date just round about there, we hope that she’ll be pushed down to S12 again just before the Paralympics and that we’ll be able to convert some of her amazing swims into medals for LA 2028,” explained Vester.
“From a management point of view, we’re super-excited for the future. This is our third consecutive world championships, 2022, 2023 and now 2025 where Team South Africa have brought back medals, and it’s just getting better as we’re getting closer to the rest of the world. Hopefully going forward, we’ll be able to convert the fourth and fifth places into medals… so we’re looking forward to that. It’s exciting times for Para swimming.”
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