Aimee Canny delivered another sensational display of racing at the national championships in Gqeberha on Wednesday night, upstaging defending champion Rebecca Meder to win the women’s 200m individual medley in a humdinger.
The duo — among the six swimmers who have achieved Commonwealth Games qualifiers so far — duelled over the four lengths of the Newton Park pool to thrill the 150-odd fans who were here to watch.
Canny touched first in 2min 10.90sec with a fast-closing Meder, owner of the 2:10.39 national record, second in 2:11.29.
Each won two legs of the race, but it was Canny’s work over the middle stretch of backstroke and breaststroke that set up the win.
Meder took the opening butterfly sector, just 0.14sec ahead, but by the time she turned for the final freestyle finale she was 0.52sec behind and unable to close the gap, although she tried.
“That was a really exciting race,” said Canny, who surprised the field on Tuesday to take the women’s 100m breaststroke.
“I knew coming into it it was going to be really fun tonight. I knew Rebecca was going to be there the whole way of that race and it was really fun to kind of swim with her and I knew we were in it together.”
Meder had hoped to get to 2:10 territory, but she was happy to have achieved the qualifier. “Not too bad of a time, like I said, I would have preferred a 10. I know that I’m capable of a 10. But yeah, good swims today. 200 breaststroke tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes.
“I think it will be a good race. I mean we got Kaylene [Corbett] in there, Aimee, myself,” added Meder, who won both national breaststroke titles last year.
Jessica Thompson, who will join Canny’s University of Virginia squad later in the year, won the women’s 50m backstroke in 27.79 to join the Games squad that will compete at the Glasgow showpiece from July 23 to August 2.
“I was really worried about getting the qualifying time,” said Thompson, who entered fewer events this year than she did in 2025. “It’s more focusing on my strengths and seeing where I could qualify for Commonwealth.”
Veteran Erin Gallagher stormed to victory in the women’s 100m butterfly in 57.36, well inside the qualifying standard, and just outside her 57.32 national record.
“One day I will break that 57. I don’t know when it will be, but it will be soon.”
Glasgow is where she started her senior international career at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and now she’ll be returning 12 years later.
“It’s really special, it’s almost a full circle moment,” the 27-year-old said, adding this would be her final Commonwealth.
Pieter Coetzé won the men’s 50m backstroke in 24.54s with Ruard van Renen second in 24.93, also inside the Commonwealth standard.
Coetzé clocked the exact same time he did in the morning, when he didn’t warm up, apart from doing some stretches with a band.
“I felt a bit cold this morning. I felt better tonight, but the 50 is such a strange thing. You never know, you can feel good and swim a terrible time or you can feel very bad and swim a great time,” said Coetzé, silver medallist in the one-lap sprint at the world championships last year.
“I don’t really train for the 50, I train for the 200 so I feel I’m not super consistent in the 50, but it’s a good time.”
Veteran Chad Le Clos won the 100m butterfly, looking around on the second lap before putting his head down to secure the victory, but his 52.18 was outside the Commonwealth criterion.
In other action, New Zealand-based Karl Albertyn won the men’s 200m IM in 2:02.40, Stephanie Houtman took the women’s 1,500m freestyle in 16:33.77 and Matthew Caldwell the men’s 1,500m freestyle in 15:46.91.
The qualifiers so far are: Pieter Coetzé (100m backstroke, 50m backstroke); Ruard van Renen (100m backstroke, 50m backstroke); Aimee Canny (200m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 200m IM); Rebecca Meder (200m IM); Jessica Thompson (50m backstroke); Erin Gallagher (100m butterfly).
* Isaacson is at the Bombela Concession Company South African championships in Gqeberha at the invitation of Swimming South Africa
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