PORT ELIZABETH, April (ANA) – Gauteng's Mariella Venter was the star performer on Day 5 at the SA National Aquatic Championships in Port Elizabeth on Friday evening.
On the night six new Youth Olympic Games qualification times were achieved.
However, it was Venter who stole the limelight as she again demonstrated her incredible speed, racing to a Youth Olympic qualification time in the 200m backstroke semifinals, bringing her total to an outstanding four A standards.
Venter was fast off the block and touched the wall in 2:13.71, to the required 2:17.83, while in the men’s semifinals Martin Binedell finished first in 2:01.13 ahead of Jarryd Baxter in 2:04.32. The final for both events will be held on Saturday.
The Youth Olympic qualification times were coming in fast for Dune Coetzee and Henju Duvenhage, adding the 100m butterfly to their ever-growing list.
Coetzee finished the semifinals with an A standard time of 1:01.51, while Duvenhage’s time was 55.33.
Western Cape’s Aimee Canny (14) posted her first Qualification time in the 50m freestyle semi-finals, finishing second in 26.43 behind Erin Gallagher in 25.79, while Gawie Nortje added the event to his Qualification times tally, also finishing second in 23.18 behind Douglas Erasmus in 22.96.
In the semifinals of the 50m breaststroke, 14-year-old Lara van Niekerk also clocked her first Qualification time in 32.27, while Michael Houlie made it two by finishing first in a Qualification time of 28.37.
In the multi-disability 50m backstroke, Ethan Paulse (S14), Franco Smit (S12), Michaela Kretzen (S14) and Katelyn Marais (S9) topped the medal podium in 32.74, 31.02, 39.87 and 43.59, while Paulse and Kretzen also bagged the 100m freestyle gold medals in 58.92 and 1:13.19, respectively.
The remaining freestyle gold medals went to Paralympian Hendri Herbst (S11) in 1:01.32 and Alani Ferreira (S13) in 1:08.55.
