Rebecca Meder storms into final No 3 as she shatters her own African record

12 December 2024 - 20:23 By SPORT STAFF
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Rebecca Meder in action in the 200m individual medley at the Paris Olympics earlier this year.
Rebecca Meder in action in the 200m individual medley at the Paris Olympics earlier this year.
Image: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images

Rebecca Meder smashed her own African record as she torpedoed into another final at the world short-course championships in Budapest on Thursday night.

Meder had dipped under the mark in the morning heats when she went 58.44 sec, but then she stepped on the gas in a lightning semifinal won by American Gretchen Walsh in a 55.71 world record.

The New Zealand-based South African finished second behind her in 57.69 to be seeded fourth for the final showdown on Friday.

This is her third final of the gala so far.

Earlier in the evening Meder came close to breaking another African record as she finished sixth in the women’s 100m breaststroke final. 

Meder, who made the 200m IM final on the opening day of the gala, clocked 1 min 03.93 sec, just four-hundredths of a second short of the mark set in 2020 by Tatjana Smith.

China’s Qianting Tang, the silver medallist behind Smith at the Paris Olympics, won in 1:02.38, ahead of American Lilly King in 1:02.80.

Meder is set to compete again in the 200m breaststroke heats on Friday morning. 


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