SPAIN AWAITS SA SWIMMERS
World event may see youngster Marlies Ross triumph
BY the time the Fina World Championships begin in Barcelona in two weeks’ time, it will be a year since South Africa put on a stellar show at the London Olympic Games.
But the SA swimming team might find itself relying more than ever on the old guard – plus current stars Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh – for medals in Spain.
Le Clos brought home gold and silver medals, while Van der Burgh took gold in the London pool.
The SA swimming team has gathered at a cold and overcast Durban this week for a pre-tournament camp that is geared to getting some last-minute racing practice in before the trip to Europe.
Head coach Graham Hill’s expectations were somewhat modest, if not subdued.
“I’m going to be dead honest, we are going with a young team, there’s a lot of inexperience, ” Hill said.
“We are relying on our experienced swimmers Chad le Clos, Cameron van der Burgh, Gerhard Zandberg and Roland Schoeman to bring us medals. And they should be able to.
“It has been a bit of a rebuild since last year ’ s London Olympics because we had a lot of swimmers retire. We have a lot of overseas-based swimmers that have stopped swimming and we’ve had to rebuild.”
Van der Burgh and Schoeman, who are training overseas, plus a few others in the 17-member team, are not part of the sixday training camp in Durban but will link up with the team in Spain.
Hill, meanwhile, doesn’t see SA’s women swimmers pushing strongly enough for medals at the championship either, because of the number of new caps in the team.
The silver lining, however, comes in the form of promising 15-year-old swimmer Marlies Ross, the youngest member of the team, whom it is hoped will benefit from competing at the highest level for the first time.
“There are a lot of young girls in the team. We are not expecting them to bring medals, we are not putting them under pressure to perform.
“They need to perform to the best of their ability and not to be expected to win medals, they are not at that level yet,” Hill said.
“We hope that these championships will give them the experience they need to compete at the highest level.
“And we also hope to unearth an elite girl swimmer. We’re keeping our eyes on Marlies Ross, who is swimming quite well at the moment. Let’s see what she can deliver for us.”