Three African records were set by South African swimmers at the Paralympic Games in Paris on Saturday.
Alani Ferreira (Top image) set the first of them in the heats of the S13 400m freestyle, finishing in a time of 4:58.06 to book her place in her first Paralympic final. Competing again in the evening, the Pietermaritzburg swimmer took a further two seconds off her time to set another African record of 4:55.95.
“I'm very happy, this is the race that I say it's my race because I do this one because I love it, not because I'm necessarily particularly very good at it. This is the one I do because I literally just love swimming and racing so I'm very happy to have gotten that time,” said Ferreira afterwards.
As for swimming two 400m races in one day, the 26-year-old added: “It definitely hurts. I'm not going to lie, but this is what we train for. We don't often get to do two 400s, but when we do, I love it, you get to really push your body past the limit, so I enjoyed it.”
Ferreira will now turn her attention to her main event – the SB12 100m breaststroke, where she has targeted a medal after claiming bronze at last year’s World Championships in Manchester last year.
“Now I definitely know I’m fit enough, now it's just a thing of getting that last-minute speed work done to make sure that I can go out hard enough and then obviously have the back-end coming back in the last 50 of the 100,” she said of that race.
The other record-breaker of the night was Christian Sadie (Pictured below). He booked his place in the final of the SM7 200m individual medley by winning his morning heat in 2:35.98. He then also went quicker in the evening final, finishing fifth in a new African record of 2:35.02
“The race went really well. I think I was in there for 150 metres, the last 50 metres hurt a little bit, but I'm happy with it, it's better than this morning,” said Sadie whose big target for these Games is the S7 50m butterfly.
“50 fly on the last day, day seven, it's the one we've been working towards,” he said. “The 200 IM is always fun so it's one of the things where I'm good at a lot of the strokes, but the legs work quite a lot and the lactate builds a lot.
“The fly I'm a lot more competitive, but we'll see, I think it's been a really good year’s prep so I'm just here to swim PBs and have a fun time,” added the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.
Earlier in the evening, Nathan Hendricks swam in his third Paralympic final in as many days, finishing sixth in the S13 400m freestyle in 4:18.05.
“It was quite tense before because there were two French people in this race, so the crowd was extra, but it was fun and I think I rose to the challenge,” said the 19-year-old. “I went under 4:20 again, so I'm quite happy with that time-wise.
“I was hoping to go quicker, but I can't complain. It's my first Paralympics, so I can't be too upset, but I know that next time I'll be better. I now know how it feels.”
Earlier in the day, Danika Vyncke took a massive 10 seconds off her previous personal best in the S13 400m freestyle. The 17-year-old finished fifth in her heat in 5:10.91 and did not progress to the evening final but will now switch focus to her main event – the SB13 100m breaststroke with the heats scheduled for 5 September.
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