Top 6 South African Swimmers to Watch at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships

• South Africa has a strong contingent in the swimming pools of Doha in 2024
• Team SA have mixed results so far but the swimming event begins on February 11
• The 2024 World Aquatics Championships has been blighted by high-profile withdrawals

The 2024 World Aquatics Championships are underway in Qatar and South Africa's leading medal hopefuls are due to take centre stage.

Results have not been great for South Africa so far with the men's and women's water polo teams registering six defeats from a combined six matches. There were also no finalists in the artistic swimming categories.

Those who have had a positive outing in Doha are Julia Vincent, who placed ninth in the final of the women's 3m springboard, as well as several open water swimmers.

Amica de Jager and Tory Earle finished in the top 25 of the Women's 5km race, and De Jager was joined by Callan Lotter among the top 30 finishers of the 10km event.

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Connor Albertyn and Rossouw Venter finished 47th and 63rd in the Men's 5km swim, respectively. In the 10km race, Henre Louw placed 53rd, just ahead of Ruan Breytenback in 58th place. In the team event, South Africa finished 15th in 4 x 1500m, just over 5 minutes behind winners, Australia.

With the swimming events running from February 11 to February 18, Sports Brief takes a look at South Africa's six best medal hopefuls in the pool.

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1. Dune Coetzee

The Pretoria-born 21-year-old won the 400m Freestyle event at the South African Championships less than a year ago.

Like many of Australia's elite swimmers, 400m Freestyle World Record holder, Ariarne Titmus(as explained by the Sydney Morning Herald) has chosen to sit this competition out paving the way for a set of unique results.

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2. Pieter Coetze

With gold medals at the Swimming World Cup, Junior World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, Coetze is a decent bet for a medal in Doha.

His personal bests in the 50m and 100 Backstroke are African records and World Record holder, Thomas Ceccon is also an absentee in Doha this year.

3. Matthew Randle

The Tuks product and South Africa's 200m Breaststroke champion is still three months shy of his 21st birthday.

He may put pressure on himself to succeed but a medal of any kind will be a massive boost for his development.

4. Matthew Sates

Much is expected of Sates after his FINA World Cup Swimming Series performance in 2022, with many believing he could become South Africa's most decorated swimmer.

Sates will first be in the pool on the morning of February 12 in Heat 6 of the 200m Freestyle, then again in Heat 5 of the 200m Butterfly on Tuesday, February 13.

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5. Lara van Niekerk

Most of the elite swimmers have opted not to participate in this competition but South Africa’s only medallist at the 2022 World Championships enjoys competition. East Coast Radio published her sentiments:

“I love racing and both my coach and I thought it would be great preparation for Paris, and it will help us see what needs to be tweaked leading up to the Games.”

6. Chad Le Clos

At 31 years old, it is difficult to describe Le Clos as a veteran but it seems an eternity since that Michael Phleps-denying night in London in 2012.

He has amassed over 260 official medals but has not set a personal best since 2022 at the FINA World Champions. However, Doha could just be a precursor to a swansong performance in Paris.

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