SA swimmer Sates finishes 8th in first world champs final

South Africa's Matthew Sates finished in eighth place in his first ever World Championships final on Wednesday night.

The 18-year-old was the youngest swimmer in the 200m individual medley final and was third fastest off the blocks. He then touched in second place on the first turn after the butterfly leg but dropped well back on the backstroke and left himself with too much catching up to do.

Sates finished in 1:58.27 as Frenchman Leon Marchand took the gold in 1:55.22. American Carson Foster won silver in 1:55.71 and Japan's defending champion Daiya Seto bronze in 1:56.22.

Sates, who hails from Pietermaritzburg, said afterwards he was feeling tired even before the start of the final - perhaps the effects of his previous races and the cold he is still recovering from. The speedy butterfly leg of the medley also took its toll on the young star who will be back in action in the 100m butterfly heats on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Emma Chelius was seventh in her 100m freestyle heat in a time of 55.39 to finish 22nd overall. Her main focus is the 50m event, however, with the heats scheduled for Friday. Chelius swam a speedy SA record time of 24.65 at last year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo to reach the semi-finals where she went even quicker, finishing in another national record time of 24.64.

Elsewhere, the South African women's water polo team came up against Argentina in a tight encounter. They led 3-2 at half time but the third quarter proved costly with the Argentinians scoring three goals to the South Africans' one. All square with one minute to go in the match, Argentina struck with just 10 seconds on the clock to sneak the win 7-6.

"Going into the game we were never expected to win it," explained SA coach Delaine Mentoor.