SA swimming: Let there be new blood
Stars due to surface at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast
● South African swimming desperately needs new blood.
Veterans Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh kickstart their Commonwealth Games qualifying campaigns on the second day of the gala in Durban today.
But the question is: will a new generation that is supposed to take their place in years to come put their hands up at Kings Park this week and again at Gold Coast 2018 from April 4-15?
South Africa’s pool-side royalty has always ascended the podiums — or at least made top five — at Commonwealth Games before achieving Olympic success.
Penny Heyns did it at Victoria 1994, Terence Parkin and Ryk Neethling at Kuala Lumpur 1998, Roland Schoeman at Manchester 2002 and then Van der Burgh and Le Clos at Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014.
There was no new generation at Glasgow 2014, only the second time for South African swimming after Melbourne 2006.
Sometimes it can take two Commonwealth Games to mature, as it did with Neethling and Schoeman, who both went to 1998 and 2002 before the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.
That means new blood is due to rise at Gold Coast in time for the Tokyo 2020 Games — or South African swimming could be heading for a lean future one day without Le Clos and Van der Burgh.
The opening day of the gala yesterday registered four qualifications.
Erin Gallagher, who turns 19 tomorrow, smashed her 100m butterfly personal best as she touched in 58.93sec to improve her Commonwealth ranking to eighth.
Ayrton Sweeney went 2min 11.64sec in the 200m breaststroke to exactly match his best from two years ago, shortly before he broke his right elbow in a freak accident.
Brent Szurdoki qualified in the 400m freestyle and Calvyn Justus, winner of two relay medals at Glasgow 2014 as a heats swimmer, did it in the 100m backstroke, going 55.57. That’s not bad for someone previously billed as a freestyler, but that time won’t set the world alight. Justus predicts relay gongs will be harder at Gold Coast next year because of absent swimmers.
Myles Brown, a key member of the 4x200m, has retired while two University of Alabama students, Christopher Reid and Zane Waddell, haven’t made the trip home for this gala. Participation is compulsory.
On top form, backstroker Reid and South African 100m freestyle champion Waddell could have joined Van der Burgh and Le Clos to produce a great 4x100m medley team.
Tatjana Schoenmaker, dominant in the 50m breaststroke yesterday, is another hopeful after her silver in the 200m breaststroke at the World Student Games a few months back. But she believes silverware in Australia next year is beyond her.
“For Gold Coast, my goal is to try make a final and a PB [personal best],” she said.
The Tuks student admits the pressure on her to perform — especially because women’s swimming is in a funk — has been immense, and probably contributed to her failure to qualify for the Rio Olympics, when she missed selection by one-hundredth of a second. “I was so stressed,” she recalled, but added: “I wasn’t ready for the Olympics.”
Five performances yesterday, but who will close the gap on stardom?