Durban – In an action-packed two hours of top-level swimming, featuring 16 finals equally divided between the men and women at the King’s Park Aquatic Centre in Durban on Saturday, the Swimming SA Grand Prix gave several of South Africa’s elite swimmers the opportunity to compete under Olympic conditions.
With the 2016 Games a mere six months away, what is important now and for the weeks ahead is the matter of qualification, and this weekend’s gala stressed the importance of that, as opposed to just doing enough to win.
Helping to make this a truly national affair were the many swimmers from outside the province, particularly those from the Tuks Swimming Club in Pretoria, the Waterborn Club from Johannesburg and the University of the Western Cape, who formed a major challenge for the powerful local club, Seagulls.
South Africa’s Olympic medallists on show, Durban’s Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, were standouts when it came to swimming against the clock, with Le Clos again dipping under the Olympic qualifying time (OQT) of 1:56.97 in the men’s 200m butterfly, in a very consistent 1:56.42 to make it the third fastest time achieved in this event so far this year.
Seagulls swimmers filled the first three places, with Brendan Levy second in 2:02.59 and Dayne Odendaal third in 2:04.11.
Le Clos was in action again in the closing race, the men’s 50m butterfly – a non-Olympic event – when he led the assault on the timing pads to touch in 24.67, followed by Douglas Erasmus (Tuks, 24.80) and Nico Meyer (Mandeville, 24.95).
Van der Burgh showed his class, first in the 50m breaststroke, and again in the 200m breaststroke, where he was put under some intense pressure from Ayrton Sweeney (Seagulls) and Jarred Crous (Tuks).
In fact, Sweeney led for most of the race and was over a second ahead at the last turn, which saw Van der Burgh summon all his resources over the closing 10m to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by 0.27 of a second in 2:16.31, Sweeney second in 2:16.58 and Crous third in 2:17.83.
Van der Burgh said he had enjoyed being slightly behind Sweeney. “It gave me all that more motivation, which is what I want at this stage of my build-up for the Games.
“We (swimmers) are all in heavy training at the moment, and we are using these Grand Prix events as extra training.
“The SA nationals in April is what we are all looking forward to.”
In one of the most exciting races of the session, only four-10ths of a second separated the first three, and a mere quarter second the first two in a blanket finish to the men’s 100m backstroke – for which the OQT is 54.36,
Ricky Ellis (CG) was first in 56.90, followed by the Tuks pair Neil de Villiers (57.15) and Jacques van Wyk (57.31).
There was yet another tight finish in the men’s 100m freestyle, which saw Calvyn Justus of Seagulls 50.66 hold off the fast-finishing Tuks pair of Douglas Erasmus (50.82) and Caydon Muller (50.95), second and third respectively, all three inching towards the OQT of 48.99.
Jarryd Baxter (Waterborn, CG) made certain of winning the men’s 400m individual medley by steadily forging a big gap between himself and a chasing pack of three, which included Jordan le Clos (Seagulls), Damian Mullen (CG) and Trent Panzera (CG), and was nine seconds ahead of Le Clos at the finish in 4:27.78, still a way to go to get the OQT of 4:16.71.
The second session of finals in this SSA Grand Prix is at noon today.