SA’s Sadie adds butterfly bronze to growing medal tally at Para world champs
The 27-year-old finished third in the S7 50m butterfly in 30.11 seconds, with Ukraine’s Andrii Trusov taking the gold in 28.95 seconds and Colombian Carlos Daniel Serrano Zarate securing the silver in 29.46.
That brings Sadie’s current collection at these championships to three after winning silver in the SM7 200m individual medley in African record time on the first day of competition, and bronze in the S7 100m backstroke.
“I’ve been quite ecstatic,” said a thrilled Sadie after his third medal. “It’s been really good morning swims and I’ve been able to up it every evening and go faster… I’ve been super-happy with seeing all the progress.
“You’re happy at a gala when you get even one of these results, so I’m just happy that nearly every race has been really good.”
The Cape Town swimmer’s coach, Keith Jansen, has also been thrilled with Sadie’s progress and admitted he expected big things in Singapore in the individual medley.
“From a coach’s point of view, I knew Christian was in good shape and good form to showcase some really good results,” said Jansen. “I knew coming into the competition that we had a shot at the 200 individual medley and the other races were going to be a hit or a miss, but I knew he was up for the competition.”
Jansen added that getting enough sleep proved key to Sadie’s excellent performances.
“He was in really good form back in South Africa. The only thing we really had to focus on was getting the sleep right,” he explained.
“That is one of the things that we got wrong in Paris at the Paralympics. So we put a little bit of emphasis on making sure that we slept properly from the first day we got here and then not putting pressure on the actual training, but just taking the first day nice and easy and then start trying to get momentum going every single day and build from there.
Sadie has two more races at the Para World Swimming Championships, the S7 50m and 100m freestyle.
“He’s got a really good chance of swimming a good time in the freestyle. His freestyle has been looking very good and I’m excited to see what he does,” added Jansen.
Meanwhile, also in action for South Africa in Singapore on Thursday was Nathan Hendricks, who progressed to the final of the S13 50m freestyle, where he finished seventh in a time of 24.80 seconds while Danika Vyncke finished ninth in her S13 50m freestyle heat in 30.14 seconds and did not reach the final.
The World Para Swimming Championships come to an end on Saturday.
ENDS
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