Sunday Times

Swimming supply lines grow thin in SA

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podium.

“It is a problem,” admits national coach Graham Hill, who faces a myriad troubles in the sport.

There are too few local universiti­es offering swimming to entice school-leavers.

“I think our problem also lies on our school system.”

Schools focus on 50m racing in the four strokes, an absurdity because freestyle is the only 50m event at the Olympics.

There’s also a serious lack of funding, the result of Swimming SA (SSA) losing a lucrative corporate sponsorshi­p five years ago and the lottery tightening the purse strings a year or so later.

“To be able to put a structure together … and do camps, it’s very difficult without funding.”

A lack of cash meant top backstroke­r Christophe­r Reid was unable to fly to Durban from his University of Alabama base.

He told the Sunday Times the institutio­n funded its swimmers to get to one major meet a year, which could have got him here.

But had he qualified for the world championsh­ips in Budapest in July, he would have had to contribute to that trip, with partial self-funding now the norm for SSA.

It wasn’t feasible for Reid, who must also fund his stay at the university because he’s not on a full scholarshi­p.

“I would have to make some financial sacrifices and that could potentiall­y set me back and delay me from getting my degree in April 2018.”

Eight swimmers landed A-qualifying times this week — Le Clos (100m & 200m freestyle, 100m & 200m butterfly); Van der Burgh (50m & 100m breaststro­ke); Myles Brown (200m freestyle); Brad Tandy, Doug Erasmus and Zane Waddell (all 50m freestyle); Brent Szurdoki (1500m freestyle); and 19-year-old Tuks student Tatjana Schoenmake­r (200m breaststro­ke), the sole female.

SSA will accept lesser B-qualifying times for the first time since 2012, targeting swimmers who are young, or female, or black.

“For us to bring a whole new generation through, we’ve had to go this route,” said Hill.

“There is no other way. If we don’t, who knows? We might not even have those swimmers hanging around for another three years.”

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