SA swimmers turn up heat for Budapest
Chad le Clos delivered another world-class display to finish off the South African championships in Durban on Saturday night‚ suggesting that there is cause for great expectations at the world championships later in 2017.
He was one of eight swimmers at the gala to achieve Astandard qualifying times for the showpiece in Budapest in July.
They include three new faces in Zane Waddell‚ Brent Szurdoki and Tatjana Schoenmaker‚ who is likely to give the championships a miss to focus on the World Student Games.
Waddell was one of three swimmers to hit the A-qualifying time in 50m freestyle‚ but countries are allowed to enter only two swimmers per event.
Szurdoki‚ however‚ whose father was born in Hungary’s capital‚ Budapest, produced a late surge to beat the 15min 12.79sec qualifying time and defending champion Matthew Meyer in the process.
Szurdoki‚ who missed qualifying for the 2016 Olympics by 0.63sec‚ touched in 15:11.22‚ while Meyer‚ the Rio Olympian‚ missed out by less than half-asecond‚ clocking 15:13.11.
For a large chunk of the race‚ it seemed as if neither swimmer would get there. “I think we were off-track until the last 100m‚” said Szurdoki.
“Throughout the whole race I could see that we needed to go faster — you try spot your coach up in the stands and then you see them waving you on.” He and Meyer were neck and neck for most of the contest.
“I don’t know if I would have done it without him‚” said the swimmer‚ who pulled out of the 200m and 800m freestyle races to focus on this race.
“Things have been difficult‚” said Szurdoki‚ who started studying exercise science earlier in 2017. “I didn’t know if I would be able to study. I got a bursary so that helped a lot. Financially‚ things aren’t always the greatest. My mom being single‚ we work hard to get everything we can so that’s why I’m grateful for everything she does for me.”
Waddell, a US-based student, set impressive personal bests in both the 100m and 50m freestyle‚ sandwiching himself between Olympians Brad Tandy and Doug Erasmus for the silver medal in the shorter race on Saturday night. Tandy won in 21.97‚ ahead of Waddell (22.41) and Erasmus (22.63).
The selectors have an interesting choice: Tandy is a shoo-in‚ but for the second 50m freestyler‚ do they go for Waddell, who got the time in the final‚ or for Erasmus, who went a quicker 22.39 in the semifinals?
Even if they opt for Erasmus‚ Waddell could be picked for the 100m freestyle‚ because Swimming SA is accepting slower B-qualifying times in cases where swimmers are young or female or black.
Rebecca Meder‚ a 14-yearold Cape Town schoolgirl‚ won five gold medals to establish herself as one to watch in the future.