Nine qualify for swim showpiece in Scotland
Brad Tandy guarantees passage to Commonwealth Games
VETERAN Roland Schoeman helped pull nervous Brad Tandy into SA’s Commonwealth Games team in the 50m freestyle in Durban last night.
Schoeman, 33, won in a comfortable 22.11sec — slower than the 22.04 he clocked in Friday’s heats and again in the semifinals — with Tandy, in the adjacent lane, second in a personal best 22.22.
It was the first time the 22year-old had ever been quicker than 22.33, the mark he needed to guarantee his passage to the Games in Glasgow from July 23 to August 3.
Tandy, who recently won the 50-yard freestyle title at the prestigious NCAA gala in the US, had been worried about making the team; he will be making his maiden call of duty in a senior national squad.
“I’m very, very relieved, I was really very worried,” admitted Tandy, who is studying business at the University of Arizona in Phoenix, some 180km from Schoeman’s base in Phoenix.
“I’ve been speaking to Roland a lot. He came up to me and told me to swim my race, keep my head down. I had him next to me. I needed that.”
In other action Rene Warnes missed out on the women’s 400m individual medley qualifying mark by just more than one second.
In all, nine swimmers qualified for the Scotland showpiece at the SA championships, which ended last night.
Four years ago, ahead of Delhi 2010, 13 swimmers achieved qualifying times.
While Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh produced world-class times this week, and others like Karin Prinsloo weighed in with great performances that have the promise of Glasgow gongs, SA swimming appears to be run- ning short on depth. Look at the men’s 100m freestyle, the sport’s blue-riband event, which has slowed to a crawl.
A decade ago Schoeman teamed up with Ryk Neethling, Lyndon Ferns and Darian Townsend to conquer the world at the Athens Olympics.
Three of the quartet could consistently break 49sec.
Le Clos, who equalled the national record of seven individual titles at an SA championship, won that event in 49.38, well short of his personal best.
Olympic years are traditionally the fastest, but already in 2014 two Australians have dipped under 48sec
But the runner-up failed to break 50sec.
At the 2010 nationals three swimmers went below 50sec, and in 2012 there were five.
Olympic years are traditionally the fastest, but already in 2014 two Australians have dipped under 48sec, and 11 swimmers worldwide have gone faster than 49sec. SA is way off the mark. Not only does this hurt SA’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, champions at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, it also affects the country’s 4x100m medley relay.
With Le Clos holding the 100m butterfly world title and Van der Burgh the Olympic 100m breaststroke crown, SA boasts the world’s fastest middle 200m in the 4x100m medley relay.
This should be an awesome foursome for SA, but instead it is scuppered by a gruesome twosome on either end of this relay — the opening backstroke leg and freestyle finale aren’t even mediocre.
SA needs a 48.50 freestyle, and a backstroker capable of at least 53.50.
Darren Murray won the SA backstroke title this week in 54.98. “It’s a problem at the moment,” conceded Swimming SA high-performance manager Dean Price. “But we can sort it out before the Rio Olympics. We have options.”
Le Clos, the 200m backstroke champ this week, could do the backstroke leg, with Sebastien Rousseau or Dylan Bosch doing the fly and Caydon Muller doing the freestyle.
Muller, 18, has done a sub-49 freestyle, although this week he was fourth in 50.25. “He’s still young,” said Price.
SA’s much-vaunted 4x200m freestyle relay team, also starring le Clos, has yet to take off — not one of the finalists, including champion Le Clos, achieved the qualifying time.