Sates claims double gold again as SA swimmers star in Monaco

Matt Sates picked up where he left off on day two of the Mare Nostrum meeting in Monaco on Sunday, adding two more gold medals to his identical haul from Saturday.

First up was the 400m individual medley, where the Maritzburg swimmer claimed victory in 4:12.74 - almost five seconds ahead of Britain's Olympic fourth-place finisher in Tokyo, Max Litchfield.

Sates then added another gold in the 200m freestyle, powering home in 1:46.69 with Brazil's Fernando Scheffer second in 1:47.48.

"Coming to Monaco has really been a treat, especially racing against so many people like Olympic finalists and Olympic medallists and competing with them. It's always nice to have that extra experience," said Sates.

"The first day went well. I had a good 400 free to start it off, so I was happy to get the gold and then to get the meet record in the 200IM and with a PB, I was pretty happy.

"Then the second day with the 400IM and the 200 free - it's quite a tough double, so I was happy to get the two golds again," he added.

Good friend Pieter Coetzé then followed suit in the 200m backstroke. The 18-year-old held off 100m backstroke gold medallist Yohann Ndoye-Brouard to take the title in 1:58.71. The Frenchman was second in 1:58.91.

Coetzé returned to the pool later in the evening for the final two-man showdown of the 50m backstroke skins and outgunned Ndoye-Brouard (24.96) again in 24.81 seconds to take another gold.

"I've being enjoying racing my first Mare Nostrum a lot and I've been learning a lot. I haven't raced a lot of international meets before, so it's very nice to get the experience and race some of the big names in the swimming world," said Coetzé.

"I'm happy with the performances from the first leg, just to get into it and shake off the