Strong showing from SA swimmers as all eyes turn to teenage sensation Van Niekerk

It was a largely successful morning of heats for South Africa’s swimmers at the Commonwealth Games on Saturday, but all eyes remain on Lara van Niekerk and her 50m breaststroke final in the evening session.

The 19-year-old will swim alongside South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett after she broke the Commonwealth Games record twice – once in her heat, and then in her semi-final in Birmingham on Friday.

The final will present South Africa’s first clear shot at a gold medal at the Games, but results on Saturday morning made for pleasant reading as Matthew Sates, in particular, continued his impressive run.

Sates, who came 6th in the 400m freestyle final on Friday, booked his spot in the 200m distance on Saturday morning when he came 2nd in his heat.

Later in the morning session, Sates was at it again as he booked his spot in the 400m individual medley final. It leaves Sates with a busy night of finals action.

There was more good news when all of Emma Chelius, Olivia Nel and Erin Gallagher advanced through their heats and into the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle.

Chelius was particularly strong, clocking the 5th fastest time from the heats.

In the 100m men's breaststroke, SA's Brenden Crawford came 3rd in his heat with Michael Houlie 6th, but both did enough to qualify for the semi-finals.  

Rebecca Meder, meanwhile, also made the 100m backstroke semi-finals after finishing fourth in her heat.

There was certainly nothing spectacular, and few outside of Van Niekerk and Schoenmaker are looking like challenging for medals just yet, but South Africa are at least seeing the bulk of their swimmers advancing through heats and into finals and semi-finals.