These times are amazing:
Kyle van Niekerk - 13 year old!
His results were as follows:
100m Free: Gold in a winning time of 53.89 – New African and South African AG Record
50m Free: Gold in a winning time of 24.69 – a New African and South African AG Record and the fastest recorded time in the world for 13- year- olds during 2011.
Yes these are long course meters. Puts it all in perspective for us geezers :cane:
From the article posted below:
The stars of the gala were Kyle van Niekerk (13), Tammy Crafford (16) and Chanel Johnston, who recently turned 16, all from the Waterborn Swimming Club in Randburg, whose swimmers are all trained by former champion and Olympic swimmer Peter Williams. "It's hard work," said Kyle. They spend between 4 and 5 hours per day in the water, and train every day of the week – three times a week at five in the morning, and also in the afternoons or early evenings.
www.sagoodnews.co.za/.../sa_excels_at_africa_junior_swimming_championships.html
25 yard pools are pretty much a US phenomenon since most of the world uses the metric system.
I'll bet there are a few here in there in the UK and Canada, built back when the Imperial system was still dominant.
I think this is the same kid who set a bunch of age group yards records in the 11-12 year old age group.
Does South Africa have yards pools?
We wrote about the other kid, Michael Andrew, (who's dad's South African, but currently lives in the US) in the Broken Records thread & in this SFF Tip
Plus here's where you can see USA Swimming's All Time Top 100 Lists:
13-14 Boys LCM
very remarkable
Wonder:
what kind of training he's done?
what his height & weight are? / How mature he is?
how much more he'll grow and improve over the years
Time will tell or times will tell
Ande his 200 free was "only" a 2:04 so I suspect he focuses mainly on the 50 and 100 events in training. The 200 may have been at the end of the meet/multiple events? (A fast twitcher for sure)
Based on the pic I saw he is tall and lanky and not super muscular. Looked like he had a huge wing span. Does not look "fully" developed. Not sure how to post a pic here.
I see with almost all super fast young age groupers the gap will eventually close as he gets older but still these times are incredible for LCM as Kirk says.
I think this is the same kid who set a bunch of age group yards records in the 11-12 year old age group.
Does South Africa have yards pools?
This is a different kid. He lives and trains in South Africa. The other kid lives and trains here in the US with his dad.
There are no yards pools in South Africa either 25m or 50m pools. In fact outside of the US there are very few yards pools if any? 25 yard pools are pretty much a US phenomenon since most of the world uses the metric system.
From the article posted below:
The stars of the gala were Kyle van Niekerk (13), Tammy Crafford (16) and Chanel Johnston, who recently turned 16, all from the Waterborn Swimming Club in Randburg, whose swimmers are all trained by former champion and Olympic swimmer Peter Williams. "It's hard work," said Kyle. They spend between 4 and 5 hours per day in the water, and train every day of the week – three times a week at five in the morning, and also in the afternoons or early evenings.
www.sagoodnews.co.za/.../sa_excels_at_africa_junior_swimming_championships.html
Peter Williams is a former world record holder in the 50 freestyle.
I'll bet there are a few here in there in the UK and Canada, built back when the Imperial system was still dominant.
The ones that I know of are 33 1/3 yard pools and 55 yard pools. No racing in these pools though. This is exactly why I don't like turns - never did enough of them!! Is the MSU outdoor pool 55 yards?
