Van Renen Eighth in First International Final

Ruard van Renen swam the fastest race of his career so far to finish eighth in his first international final at the World Short Course Championships in Budapest on Wednesday.

Van Renen had a great start to the 100m backstroke final, which was won by Russian Miron Lifintsev in a new world junior record of 48.76 seconds, with the South African eventually finishing eighth in 49.61 seconds – just his third sub-50 second time after the heats and semifinals.

Van Renen had earlier swum in the heats of the 100m freestyle as a warm-up for his evening final, finishing 56th overall in 49.43 seconds.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Meder continued to show her rising form in the breaststroke events. The 22-year-old powered back from sixth place at the halfway mark to finish third in her 100m breaststroke semifinal in 1:04.04. That saw her booking a place in Thursday’s final, where she may well target Tatjana Smith’s African record of 1:03.89.

Meder had earlier finished second in her morning heat in a time of 1:04.57 to secure her spot in the semifinal as the eighth-fastest qualifier. Also competing in the event was 2022 Commonwealth Games champion Lara van Niekerk whose 1:05.57 for third place in her heat saw her finishing 22nd overall and out of semifinal contention. Her main focus will be on the 50m breaststroke.

“Coming in I wanted to go under 1:05… so I’m just stoked that I’m in that final,” said Meder after her semifinal.

“These are the girls I watched in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and to be in the same semifinal as them in breaststroke is like – where did that come from? I’m excited and let’s just see what I have in the tank for tomorrow. It’s a big day,” added the two-time Olympian who will also compete in the 100m individual medley on Thursday.

In the men’s 100m breaststroke semifinals, teenager Chris Smith finished seventh in his race in a personal best of 57.11 seconds, missing out on Thursday’s final. Smith had done well to reach the semifinal, after finishing sixth in his morning heat in 57.38 seconds. That saw the 18-year-old securing the 16th and final available semifinal spot.

“It’s my first time competing on this level and I’m very happy with all my times so far,” said Smith afterwards. “It’s a bit intimidating [competing against the top international swimmers] but when you get on the block, you just forget about it and swim.”

Earlier in the day, South Africa’s 4x50m mixed medley team of Jessica Thompson, Michael Houlie, Caitlin de Lange and Kris Mihaylov set a new African record of 1:41.32 on their way to fifth in their heat. It was not enough to see them through to the evening final, however.

Before the relay, De Lange finished 32nd overall in the 100m freestyle heats with a time of 53.91 seconds while Stephanie Houtman was fifth in her 800m freestyle race in 8:30.32 to finish 22nd overall.