South Africa’s Zane Waddell has brought home a Gold for the final of the men’s 50m backstroke at the 2019 FINA World Championships!
Gwangju, South Korea – Zane Waddell is a 21-year-old South African swimmer who is making headlines after pulling off a massive upset at the FINA World Championships on Sunday.
Waddell first became known after competing in the men’s 100-metre freestyle event at the 2017 FINA World Championships but has gone for Gold in the 50 metres backstroke this year!
The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, synchronised swimming, and water polo. FINA runs them, and all swimming events are contested in a long course (50-metre) pool.
The event was first held in 1973 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and is now held every two years. From 1978 to 1998, the World Championships were held every four years, in the even years between Summer Olympic years. From 2001 on, the Championships have been held every two years, in the odd years.
Athletes from all 209 FINA members could take part in the competition. The record for most countries taking part in a single edition was set in 2019, with 192 members. 2019 has also seen a record number of athletes participating, with 2,623 athletes.
And Waddell has made South Africa proud in 2019 with his brilliant Gold win!
Wadell upset the favourites to touch first during the 50 metres backstroke, ahead of the Russian top guns Yevgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov – his winning margin was 0.06sec. While South Africa had some past in this event thanks to 2007 champion Gerhard Zandberg, this was the first time that Russians stood on the podium.
Team South Africa has also now moved up to joint 10th, alongside Sweden on the medal table.
Congratulations Zane. Proudly South African… and PROUD of South Africa!
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