Sadie smashes African record, Hendricks just misses podium with fourth place at World Para Swimming Championships

Nathan Hendricks narrowly missed a medal in the S13 400m freestyle for visually impaired swimmers, finishing fourth with a time of 4:15.28 seconds at the World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore on Friday.

“I was quite chuffed with the placing, coming fourth. I was quite happy with that. Time-wise, I’m OK with it; I could do a lot better, but now I know what I can work on, especially with my swim technique and turns, as they weren’t too great. However, I can definitely improve on those and get better,” said Hendricks.

The gold medal was claimed by Russia's Egor Shchitkovskii, who touched the wall in 4:02.14.

Hendricks highlighted the challenge of back-to-back events, stating, “Last night I swam the 50 free, so it was quite a tight turnaround to the 400 free this morning, being the first event. This morning, I just wanted to ensure I made the final, and then in the final, it was all about going all out and seeing how I could do. I left everything in the pool, so I was very chuffed with this race.”

READ: Christian Sadie adds 2 bronze medals to SA's tally at World Para Swimming Champs

In other news, Christian Sadie continued his impressive performance at the championships, setting a new African record in the S7 50m freestyle after already securing three medals.

“Today went quite well overall. The 50 free is always a fun event. It’s a splash and dash, and little technical things need to align for a good performance,” Sadie reflected. “In the morning, I felt I swam really well, but there were some technical mistakes that I made.”

The 27-year-old finished fifth in the final with a time of 28.70 seconds, while gold went to Ukrainian Andrii Trusov, who finished in 27.98 seconds.

“It was a good time, but for what I knew I should have been doing, maybe not as great as I could have achieved. But in the evening, we corrected those issues. The technical aspects improved significantly, and overall, I feel like I executed a lot better, so it was a positive day,”Sadie added.

In the S13 400m freestyle event, Alani Ferreira finished seventh in another strong showing with a time of 4 minutes 56.05 seconds, while Danika Vyncke rounded out the race in eighth place at 5:05.55.

The World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore will conclude on Saturday, September 27.