Van Niekerk Completes Breaststroke Sweep

Lara van Niekerk completed an impressive breaststroke clean sweep by adding the 200m gold to her collection on the final day of the Bombela Concession Company SA National (25m) Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday.

The 22-year-old, who is well on the way to reclaiming the form that took her to two Commonwealth Games titles and long and short course World Championship medals, claimed victory in the 200m breaststroke on Sunday in a time of 2 minutes 24.81 seconds to add to her 50m and 100m crowns.

Better known for her sprinting prowess in the shorter breaststroke events, Van Niekerk said she uses the 200m long course as training for her 100m, but admitted she much prefers the short course version of the race.

“I enjoy the 25-metre short course 200 because it’s all about pull downs and you can keep up your speed, so I actually did really enjoy that race – don’t tell my coach,” said a laughing Van Niekerk.

“The last 50, I did really have to dig deep. But I think just the fact that I could keep going and keep my tempo up is a really positive thing for me, it just shows my fitness is back where it should be. Now it’s just the little technical things that we just need to sharpen up.

Speaking about her performances in general in terms of regaining confidence, Van Niekerk added: “This has only been positive. There’s not one race I’m upset about, so that’s a very good thing. I have some videos, I’m going to go and look back at them and just see exactly what I can work on, but I think overall the stroke is where it should be, it’s more about just getting the speed up again, fitness is there, so it’s looking good.”

The men’s 200m breaststroke title was claimed by Oliva Lange in 2:12.11.

Meanwhile, Duné Coetzee added the 200m butterfly title to the 200m and 400m freestyle golds she already had in the bag. The Pretoria swimmer won in a time of 2:14.16, pushed all the way by 16-year-old Abigail Kotze, who got the better of Coetzee in the 100m event earlier in the week. Kotze was a close second in 2:14.85.

Coetzee admitted afterwards, she was relieved to have felt better in the afternoon compared to her morning heat.

“This morning I quite literally felt awful, and I think that’s just because I raced the 400 free very late last night, so I think that was still in me,” she said.

“I was a little bit nervous going into this race because I know that Abi’s been crazy fast this meet, but at the same time, I was very excited because it’s always nice to have some competition and I love racing, I’ve always been a racer.

“She really pushed me and I didn’t think I was going to go five seconds faster than what I did this morning, so I’m really happy,” she added.

“Even in the 100 fly, even though she beat me, I’m so proud of her and it’s so nice to have someone in the 100 and the 200 that can really push me.”

Jarden Eaton sprung a surprise in the men’s 200m butterfly, beating favourite Tai Pearson to the title, dipping under two minutes for the first time to stop the clock on 1:59.50.

After securing the title from lane eight, Eaton admitted afterwards that even he was surprised by the result.

“I wasn’t expecting that really,” he said. “I just wanted a personal best, that’s all.

“The first 50 I wanted to just feel it out, be comfortable, easy with my stroke, and then towards the end on the third 50 and the fourth, I just wanted to build into my last 50 and pick up the rate… It’s amazing, I’m really, really happy with it.”

The 1500m freestyle titles were decided earlier in the day, with Carli Antonopoulos adding to her 800m title with victory in a time of 17 minutes 01.33 seconds.

Matthew Caldwell claimed his third title of the championships, winning the men’s 1500m freestyle in 15:28.11 to add to the 200 and 400m freestyle golds.

“It was different than I expected, a bit slower than I would like, but a win’s a win, especially after a long week of racing with very competitive swimming, I’m happy with that,” said Caldwell, who is now setting his sights on next year’s Commonwealth Games.