The first day of the swimming programme at the 30th Summer Universiade in Napoli

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Napoli, Thursday, 4th July 2019 - The South African Swimming Team kicked off their FINA World Championship preparations with a number of impressive performances during the first day of the 30th Summer Universiade, taking place at the Scandone Swimming Pool in Napoli, Italy today.

In the 100m breaststroke semi-finals, Michael Houlie was ahead of the pack at the 50m mark but had to settle for a second place finish in 59.64, while the USA’s Ian Finnerty came in first with a new Championship record of 59.51.

The Free State’s Zane Waddell took the 100m backstroke semi-finals by storm, concluding in 3^rd place with a time of 54.01 behind the USA’s Justin Ress in 53.47 and Russia’s Grigory Tarasevich in 53.71. The final for the race will take place tomorrow.

In the semi-final of the 50m butterfly, KZN’s Tayla Lovemore was fast off the block to secure a space in the final of the event tomorrow, finishing in 4^th place with a time of 26.60, just 0.10secs behind South Korea’s Soeun Jeong’s 26.50.

Nathania van Niekerk finished 12^th in her 200m backstroke semi-finals in 2:13.81.

During the morning heats session, Martin Binedell finished 28^th in the 100m backstroke with a time of 55.99 and also participated in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay alongside Waddell, Eben Vorster and Brent Szurdoki, where they concluded in an overall 11^th place in 3:22.17.

In the remaining heats, Szurdoki was 17^th in the 400m freestyle in 3:54.62 ahead of Joshua Dannhauser, who touched the wall in 20^th place in 3:55.40, while Alaric Basson clocked 1:02.89 in the 100m breaststroke to end in 30^th place.

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Swimming South Africa

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Swimming South Africa is the governing body of aquatics in South Africa.

Its objective is to encourage the practice of aquatic disciplines for all in South Africa with the purpose of promoting swimming as a life skill through Learn To Swim programmes; providing healthy exercise to South Africans of all ages and races; recruiting recreational swimmers to compete in the various competitions; and promoting competition and athlete development to the highest level. Swimming South Africa is kindly supported by SASCOC, National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, Arena, Sport & Recreation SA and Rand Water.