2026 South African National Championships: Coetze Impresses Again ...Middle East

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

2026 SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2026 South African National Swimming Championships began last night in Gqeberha, and already we saw several notable performances as the nation’s swimmers vie for Commonwealth Games qualification.

Through day one, we saw world champion Pieter Coetze, NCAA champion Aimee Canny and Georgia Bulldog Ruard van Renen add their names to the RSA roster for Glasgow. And, tonight, additional swimmers joined the party on both the men’s and women’s sides.

Right off the bat, 21-year-old Coetze made his presence known once again, taking on the men’s 50m backstroke.

The Pretoria student stopped the clock at a super speedy time of 24.54 to get the job done, registering one of two times under the 25-second barrier.

Joining him under the threshold was van Renen, who touched in 24.83 as the silver medalist, with Luan Barnard, just 18 years of age, rounding out the podium in 26.10.

As for Coetze, his effort this evening was just under half a second off his best-ever performance and African record of 24.17 he put on the books at last year’s World Championships. He now checks in as the 4th-fastest man on the planet at the moment.

27-year-old national record holder Erin Gallagher also delivered a powerful performance, putting up a swift 57.36 to reap gold in the women’s 100m fly.

After hitting 58.97 as the top-seeded swimmer out of the heats, Gallagher split 27.29/30.07 to fall just .04 shy of the 57.32 South African standard she established at the 2024 edition of this competition.

Gallagher scored the sole time of the field tonight under the minute barrier, with 18-year-old Anje Van As next to the wall in 1:00.43, followed by 17-year-old Jaime Mote, who also landed on the podium in 1:00.77, good enough for bronze.

Gallagher now ranks 8th in the world on the season.

2025-2026 LCM Women 100 FLY

Chad le Clos, a man who needs no introduction, powered his way to the gold in the men’s 100m fly, demonstrating once again that this 34-year-old is far from finished after an already illustrious career.

Le Clos stopped the clock at a mark of 52.18 to get the edge over van Renen, who settled for silver just .09 behind in 52.27. Jarden Eaton, 20, hit 52.60 as the bronze medalist.

Le Clos split 24.29/27.89 to get the job done and put himself on the South African roster for this year’s Commonwealth Games, a quadrennial competition at which the legend has already earned an astonishing 18 medals.

The women’s 200m IM saw Aimee Canny double up on her 200m free victory from last night, posting a winning effort of 2:11.90.

That gave her a healthy advantage over Rebecca Meder, who settled for silver in 2:11.29. 19-year-old Sofia French rounded out the podium in 2:19.16.

“That was a really exciting race. I knew coming into it, it was going to be really fun tonight,” said Canny afterwards. “I knew Rebecca was going to be there the whole way of that race and it was really fun to kind of swim with her, and I knew we were in it together,” she added.

While happy to have qualified, Meder wasn’t too happy with her time. “I wanted a 2:10. But I don’t even think I’m fully tapered coming into this competition. The goal was just to get the job done… it’s been good.”

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