'Impressive:' Rebecca Meder powers into second final of the world short-course championship

11 December 2024 - 19:47 By SPORT STAFF
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Rebecca Meder in action at the Paris Olympics earlier this year.
Rebecca Meder in action at the Paris Olympics earlier this year.
Image: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images

Rebecca Meder powered her way into her second final of the world short course championships in Budapest on Wednesday, delivering an impressive performance in the 100m breaststroke semifinals.

Meder, who finished sixth in the 200m individual medley on Tuesday, refused to back down in a field that featured some stars of the past, namely American Lilly King, Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania and Russian Yuliya Efimova.

King won their semifinal in 1:03.23, with Alina Zmushka second in 1:03.89 and Meder third in a 1:04.04 personal best, which seeded her seventh overall for the final.

China’s Qianting Tang — who finished second behind South Africa’s Tatjana Smith at the Paris Olympics — won the other semifinal in a pace-setting 1:02.37, just outside the world record.

US-based Ruard van Renen ended eighth in the men’s 100m backstroke final, but his 49.61 sec personal best at the back of a lightning race was impressive.

Russian teenager Miron Lifintsev, swimming as a neutral athlete, won in a 48.76 world junior record, edging home favourite Hubert Kos by three-hundredths of a second.

Teen Chris Smith was the only other South African in the evening session, finishing seventh in his men’s 100m breaststroke semifinal in a 57.11 personal best.

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