Lara van Niekerk completed a clean sweep of the breaststroke events on the final day of the SA Grand Prix meet in Durban on Sunday, 20 February 2022.
After achieving a personal best in the 100m breaststroke, van Niekerk once again showed her early-season form, powering to victory in the 50m breaststroke in 30.59.
She then followed that up with a win in the 200m breaststroke in 2:29.10.
“It was fun, I enjoyed it,” said van Niekerk, who is known more for the sprint events rather than the 200m.
“I did die a bit more than last night (Saturday), but it was fun overall.” SA Grand Prix champ, Lara van Niekerk
She will be eager to build on this form, heading into the SA National Championships in April and then Commonwealth Games later in the year.
Meanwhile, Rebecca Meder added two more titles to her haul, sharing victory in the 100m freestyle with fellow Olympian Emma Chelius after both swimmers touched the wall in 56.43 and then claiming top honours in the 400m freestyle in 4:19.51.
“I think you always try to end the race pretty strong and that’s a good sign for my 400m,” said Meder afterwards.
“I haven’t raced the 400m freestyle in quite a while so I’m happy with the time. A bit faster would have been better but I’m really happy with the weekend of racing that I’ve had.”
Ross Hartigan also racked up two more victories, claiming 100m butterfly honours in 55.66 and then diving back into the pool a few minutes later to wrap up the 200m individual medley title in 2:05.97.
Elsewhere, Catherine van Rensburg followed up her 800m freestyle victory on Saturday with a win in the 400m individual medley in 5:03.91. Kerryn Herbst took the 100m backstroke title in 1:03.76, Leigh McMorran won the 200m butterfly in 2:18.37 and Inge Weidemann took top honours in the 50m butterfly in 27.54.
The next major meet for the country’s top swimmers will be the SA National Championships from 6-11 April in Gqeberha.
Photo 1 Caption: Lara van Niekerk completed a clean sweep of the breaststroke events on the final day of the SA Grand Prix meet in Durban on Sunday, 20 February 2022. Photo: Supplied
With editing by gsport
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