The second day of the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan
Ruby Versfeld scored the only goal for South Africa, who will play their next match against Australia on Tuesday.
Scorers for the Netherlands were Miloushka Smit (three), Chatarina van der Sloot (four), Amarens Genee (one), Marloes Nijhuis (two), Vivian Sevenich (two), Maud Megens (one), Isabella van Toorn (one), Lieke Klaassen (six) and Leonie van der Molen (two).
Speaking after the match, South African coach Brad Rowe was full of praise for his team despite going down to the Netherlands.
“They tried their hardest against all odds and were simply unable to hold on to one of the best teams at the tournament, while having only three players on the bench.” concluded Rowe.
Swimming South Africa’s CEO, Shaun Adriaanse said despite their defeat to the Netherlands, they expect the team to improve their performance as the Championships progress.
“It is always a bit nerve wrecking in opening events especially against highly rated teams like the Netherlands, but we are confident our team will recover and improve.” concluded Adriaanse.
Earlier on in the day, Emma Manners Wood and Laura Strugnell finished 37th in the Synchro Duet Technical preliminaries with 65.3539 points.
In the Diving section, Julia Vincent and Micaela Bouter ended the 1m Springboard preliminaries in 21st and 22nd place respectively.
Gold medalist Chad Ho will be racing the 10km Open Water Swimming event tomorrow (Monday), alongside Daniel Marais, while the men’s Water Polo team will be up against Argentina in their first game of the competition.
For further information please contact:
Swimming South Africa Marketing Coordinator
Thathani Gaba
082 304 1817
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.
Please visit www.swimsa.org for further information and news regarding Swimming South Africa.