Commonwealth Games double gold medallist Tatjana Schoenmaker came painstakingly close to her national record, posting a world championship qualifying time in the 100m breaststroke on Thursday.
Schoenmaker booked her place for the global showpiece earlier in the week in the 200m breaststroke at the South African Swimming Championships in Durban.
She won the 100m breaststroke event in a time of one minute, 06.83 seconds (1:06.83), with training partner Kaylene Corbett touching hitting the wall in second place in 1:09.03.
Corbett missed the qualifying mark, but already pencilled her name in for the world championships in the 200m breaststroke event.
Schoenmaker’s time was 0.42s slower than the national record she set at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Australia.
South African record-holder Christopher Reid, who qualified for the world championships in the 200m backstroke could not repeat that feat in the 100m event.
Reid stopped the clock just short of the qualifying mark of 54.06 seconds in both the heats and the evening’s final.
He won the 100m backstroke in a time of 54.23, with Zane Waddell finishing in second place clocking 54.60.
Reid’s winning time is more than a second slower than the national record of 53.13 he set in 2016.
Youth Olympic gold medallist Michael Houlie came close to adding his name to the list of qualifiers but just fell short.
He won the men’s 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:00.44 which is just 0.49s outside the qualifying mark.
A total of eight swimmers – four women and four men – have made the preliminary team for the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea in July.
Men:
Chad le Clos – 200m butterfly, 100m butterfly, Christopher Reid – 200m backstroke, Ryan Coetzee – 100m butterfly, Ayrton Sweeney – 400m individual medley.
Women:
Tatjana Schoenmaker – 100m and 200m breaststroke, Kaylene Corbett – 200m breaststroke, Nathania van Niekerk – 200m backstroke, Erin Gallagher – 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly.
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