William Diering
South African swimmer (born 1986)
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William Grant Diering (born 7 May 1986) is a South African swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events.[1] He finished twelfth in the 200 m breaststroke at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and also set a new South African record (2:06.85) to earn a bronze medal at the FINA World Short Course Championships few months later in Manchester, England.[2]
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | William Grant Diering | ||||||||||||||||||||
| National team |  South Africa | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 7 May 1986 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 67 kg (148 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Breaststroke | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | TuksSport | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Diering competed for the South African swimming squad, alongside his teammate Neil Versfeld, in the men's 200 m breaststroke at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Leading up to the Games, he captured the men's 200 m breaststroke title at the South African Championships in Johannesburg with a new national record of 2:11.88 to assure his selection to the Olympic team under the FINA A-cut (2:13.70) and shave 1.72 seconds off the standard previously set by Terence Parkin in 2000.[3][4] Swimming in heat six, Diering threw down a new African record in 2:10.39 to grab the eighth seed for the semifinals, and then enjoyed his teammate Versfeld joining him to the roster by 0.11 seconds to round out the top four of their heat.[5][6] Followed by the next morning's semifinals, Diering missed the top eight final with a twelfth-place time in 2:10.21, and lost a spirited challenge for another African record feat to Versfeld (2:10.06) by just a small fraction of a second.[7]
Shortly after the Olympics, Diering edged out Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli by nearly two seconds to claim the 200 m breaststroke title at the African Swimming Championships in Johannesburg with a time of 2:16.00.[8]
