The first leg of the SA Grand Prix wrapped up in Nelspruit today
Erin Gallagher (19) concluded the meet with an additional two gold medals in the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly.
In the freestyle race, Gallagher claimed the top spot in 26.05 ahead of Germany’s Angelina Kohler in 26.96 and Olivia Nel in 27.26, while her winning time in the butterfly event was 1:01.78, over 3secs ahead of Kohler’s 1:04.51 and Kerryn Herbst’s 1:06.53.
Emily Visagie (20) also bagged another gold medal, this time in the 100m breaststroke, clocking 1:12.77 ahead of Germany’s Anna Kroniger and Malaika Schneider in 1:14.09 and 1:15.38, respectively, while Megan Tully (15) was victorious in the 200m backstroke in 2:24.53, beating out Germany’s Barbara Schaal in 2:25.04 and Kristin Bellingan in 2:27.04.
Luca Holtzhausen (13) added four gold medals to his tally today, winning the 200 and 400m individual medleys in 2:12.33 and 4:45.11, the 100m butterfly in 59.13, and the 100m breaststroke in 1:12.99, while 15 year old Rebecca Meder, who won two silver medals in the Open Water section, returned to the pool and scooped two gold medals in the 200m freestyle in 2:05.90 and the 200m individual medley in 2:21.67.
Daniel Ronaldson (21) beat out Ayrton Sweeney in the 200m butterfly, touching the wall in a fast 2:03.87 to Sweeney’s 2:06.57, with the bronze medal going to Tiago Cordeiro in 2:07.64, while in the 100m freestyle, Ronaldson only managed a silver in 52.07 behind Germany’s Damien Wierling in 50.01 and ahead of Paul Reither from Germany in 52.40.
Later on in the day, Sweeney (24) secured his second gold of the competition in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:17.34 followed by Alaric Basson in 2:21.78 and Sachin Chetty in 2:28.99.
The 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke gold medals went to Hannah Robertson (13) in 1:01.53 and 1:13.75, respectively, while the first place in the long distance 800m freestyle went to Tori Oliver in 9:31.13, with Robertson finishing second in 9:47.51.
Robertson claimed her second silver of the meet in the 50m freestyle in 28.89, behind Brooklyn Croxon in 28.35 and ahead of Hannah Cromhout in 29.17.
The medal podium in the 100m backstroke was completed by Martin Binedell in 58.07, Chase Rayment in 1:00.36 and Cameron Oliver in 1:00.70, with the top three positions in the 400m freestyle going to Aryan Makhija in 4:07.72, Dylan Wright in 4:14.08 and Henre Louw in 4:16.16.
The second and final leg of the Grand Prix will be held in Stellenbosch from 16th to 18th February 2018.
ENDS
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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.