5th FINA World Junior Championships Wrap Up

The team of sixteen young South Africans took the opportunity to face some of the World’s top rising stars and gain some well earned experience at the competition.
Swimming South Africa’s CEO, Shaun Adriaanse had this to say on the team’s performance in Singapore:

“Participating in this event was important for our young athletes to gauge their performance as part of our 2020 Olympic Cycle. The athletes and their coaches now where they are in relation to the rest of the world and can now make the necessary adjustments for our 2020 programme. “Concluded Adriaanse.

On the ladies side, Mariella Venter showed great potential, making the final of the 50m backstroke, where she finished 8th in 29.17 and also racing to the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke, ending 15th in 1:02.15. Venter also competed in the 200m backstroke, finishing 18th in 2:16.21 and was 35th in the 50m freestyle in 27.54.
Coming straight from the World Championships in Kazan, Carmen le Roux was 20th in the 1500m freestyle with a time of 17:14.38, 22nd in the 400m individual medley in 5:00.09, 30th in the 200m butterfly in 2:20.83 and 45th in the 100m butterfly in 1:06.19.

Erin Anderson came 26th in the 200m breaststroke in 2:39.54, 32nd in the 50m breaststroke in 34.64, 39th in the 200m individual medley in 2:24.77 and 54th in the 50m butterfly in 31.02.
Kate Beavon and Tracy-Lea Meyer swam the 400m freestyle where they finished 34th and 42nd in 4:25.96 and 4:30.41 respectively, while in the 200m freestyle Beavon ended 42nd in 2:07.35 and Meyer was 63rd in 2:14.88.

Beavon also competed in the 400m individual medley, where she concluded the race in 27th place in 5:02.49, while Meyer took on the 1500m freestyle and was 17th in 17:06.21.
Hannah Mclean-Leonard  came in 36th position in the 50m butterfly, clocking 28.86, 40th in the 100m butterfly in 1:04.12, 49th in both the 100m freestyle and 50m backstroke in 1:01.18 and 32.15 respectively, while she managed a 50th place finish in the 100m backstroke in 1:11.21.

Emily Visage and Jade Neser finished 20th and 28th in the 100m breaststroke in 1:12.29 and 1:13.45 respectively, while Neser went on to compete in the 50m breaststroke, 50 and 100m freestyle ending the events in 19th place (33:04), 34th place (27.30) and 51st place (1:01.24).
Visage was in action in the 200m breaststroke where she finished 17th in 2:33.40 and the 200m individual medley, ending 24th in 2:20.53.
On the men’s side, Ude Fuchs made the most out of the event as he competed in six races, the 50 and 100m backstroke, finishing 34th and 37th in 27.33 and 58.54, the 50 and 100m breaststroke, concluding in 24th place in both races in 29.67 and 1:04.65 and ended the Championships with the 100 and 200m butterfly in 31st and 27th place in 55.82 and 2:04.53, respectively.

Close behind with five events was Dayne Odendaal who completed the 200m butterfly in 16th place in 2:01.93, the 200m individual medley in 22nd place in 2:06.74, the 100m butterfly in 41st position in 56.46, the 100m backstroke in 49th place in 1:00.40 and the 100m freestyle in 51st place in 53.72.
Joshua Dannhouser and Matthew Meyer both swam the long distance 800 and 1500m freestyle events where they finished 15th and 17th in the 800 and 17th and 8th in the 1500m, clocking 8:11.87, 8:12.54, 15:43.51 and 15:25.76 respectively.

Dannhouser also came in 27th in the 400m individual medley in 4:36.17, while Meyer was 28th in the 400m freestyle in 3:59.82.
Jarryd Baxter was fast in the 400m freestyle, finishing 11th in 3:54.95 and later in finished 15th in the 400m individual medley in 4:27.49, 17th in the 200m individual medley in 2:01.17 and 29th in the 200m freestyle in 1:52.99.
Kyle van Niekerk and Sean Moodley competed in the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly together, finishing in 20th and 65th in 23.30 and 25.81 in the freestyle and 24th and 79th in 25.14 and 27.80 in the butterfly.
Van Niekerk also swam the 100 and 200m freestyle races where he ended in 23rd and 33rd place in 51.11 and 1:53.60, while Moodley hit the water in the 50 and 200m backstroke, ending in 51st and 49th place in 28.64 and 2:17.35 respectively.

Breaststroker, Daniel Swanepoel ended the 50m race in 35th place in 30.29, the 100m event in 30th position in 1:05.40 and the 200m swim in 23rd, clocking 2:21.55.
The Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa will be the next event for the South African swimming team comprising of Neil Fair, Brendan Levy, Zane Waddell, James Isemonger, Erin Gallagher, Nathania Van Niekerk, Jamie Reynolds and Kaylene Corbett. The competition will be held from 5th to 12th September 2015.

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