South African teen sensation Lara van Niekerk broke her own African record in the 50m breaststroke semi-final at the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday, 17 December 2022.
The 19-year-old qualified the third fastest with a time of 29.45 for the semi-final. In the semi’s she finished third with another new African record in a time of 29.27.
Meanwhile, Ruta Meilutyte surpassed Alia Atkinson’s short course world record storming to victory in a time of 28.37.
“It was quite cool swimming in a world record race, I don’t think a lot of people can say that,” said van Niekerk.
“There were a few errors, my start wasn’t the greatest and I was a bit short on the turn so I think if I can fix those things tomorrow night, it will be a very good race,” she added.
“I’m looking forward to the 50m final, it’s always my most fun race and I’m just happy that I can hopefully end off the gala on a very high note,” she concluded.
Elsewhere, Dakota Tucker finished 14th overall in the women’s 400m individual medley heats in 4:40.01, while Rebecca Meder was 19th in the 100m butterfly in 58.04.
The SA women’s 4x50m medley relay team of Milla Drakopoulos, Emily Visagie, Caitlin de Lange and Hannah Pearse were 13th overall with a time of 1:53.76.
Photo 1 Caption: South African teen sensation Lara van Niekerk broke her own African Record in the 50m Breaststroke semi-finals on Saturday, 17 December 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Swimming South Africa (Twitter)
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