Three swimmers reached individual semifinals and the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team made it to the final on Saturday, as South Africa’s campaign gained momentum on day two of the World Student Games in Gwangju, South Korea.
In the final race of the evening session in the pool, the quartet of Clayton Jimmie, Douglas Erasmus, Luke Pendock and Nico Mayer took eighth place in 3:21.07 in the fight for the medals, ending less than six seconds off the pace of the winning American team.
Earlier, Mayer had taken sixth place in his 50m butterfly semifinal in 24.30 seconds, but was ranked 14th fastest in the collated results and did not progress to the final.
In the penultimate round of the women’s butterfly sprint, Jessica Ashley-Cooper was 12th quickest in 27.02 and compatriot Marne Erasmus was ranked 15th in 27.13, and they too were eliminated.
The SA women’s football team put up another gutsy display but went down 2-0 against Canada in their second Group D match.
The Canadians struck in either half through Jessie Candlish in the 15th minute and Audrey Lagarde on the hour mark, handing the South Africans their second straight narrow defeat.
SA swimmers off to promising start in Gwangju
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