Green pool from burst pump slows top swimmers in Bay
A DISCOLOURED pool affected world championship qualifying times on the first day of national swimming championships in Port Elizabeth yesterday.
A pump burst at the Newton Park swimming pool on Sunday, causing the usually clear water to turn grass green. The poor visibility could yet force the event to be postponed.
The burst pump allowed excessive dust to get into the system, and although it was speedily repaired, the water was still green last night.
A Swimming SA (SSA) official said delaying the event “slightly” could be considered if the pool had not improved by early today.
“We’ll assess it in the morning,” chief executive Shaun Adriaanse said at the event, which also serves as trials for the world championships in Barcelona later this year.
Earlier yesterday, the murky water looked to be clearing, but by evening it seemed to get worse.
Coupled with the overhead lighting, conditions made it difficult for swimmers to see under water.
Adriaanse said SSA was liaising with the municipality.
Four-time Olympian Roland Schoeman accepted the broken pump was an “unfortunate accident”, but added that the malfunction had profound effects on swimmers.
“We are expected to perform like the Australians and the Americans but we don’t have conditions like they do, so how can we really be compared to the world if we are not in the same condition,” he said.
CAMERON van der Burgh conquered murky water and faulty equipment at the national championships in Port Elizabeth last night, but the poor visibility could yet force this gala to be postponed.
The big casualty was rising distance star Myles Brown, who narrowly missed out on a spot on the Olympic team last year, but was determined to qualify this time.
Instead he fell short in the 400m freestyle by a quarter of a second.
“I think I swam into the lane ropes a couple of times and my last turn was really bad. I turned on the wall.”
The talented swimmer who early this year beat Australian star Ryan Napoleon in the Perth Tri-Nations gala, said: “To miss out by 0.3sec is quite hard. I just couldn’t see anything.”
“Hopefully I can still qualify in the 200m, 800m and 1 500m freestyle,” Brown said. He could not force a smile in the immediate moments after winning the SA title.
Van der Burgh was the only one to crack a qualifying time last night, winning his semifinal in 1min 00.71sec.
It was an impressive performance considering that, apart from the green liquid, he also swam an extra 40m after a false start. But the Olympic champion laughed it off.
“If you get upset you burn your- self. I forgot to bring my putter. It makes things more challenging, but we’re South African,” he joked.
Roland Schoeman, who beat Chad le Clos by nearly half a second in their 50m butterfly semifinal, also struggled with the visibility.
“It’s really unfortunate. You have no idea where you are [in the pool]. I’m glad I was swimming only one lap and not the 100m tonight,” Schoeman said. He clocked 23.23s.
But he was unhappy about the selection criterion stating that swimmers cannot qualify in the nonOlympic sprints – 50m fly, 50m backstroke and 50m breaststroke.
His time, as well as Le Clos’s 23.78, were inside the qualifying standard stipulated by water sports world governing body Fina.
SSA’s thinking was that they want to strengthen SA’s performances at the 2016 Olympics – but then again, Van der Burgh qualified for only the 50m breaststroke in 2007 and look where he is now.
But the federation’s selection criteria allow them to exercise some discretion, and hopefully they won’t overlook medal potentials. Disabled swimmers Charl Bouwer (400m freestyle, 100m backstroke), Kevin Paul (400m free), Hendri Herbst (400m free, 100m back) and Shireen Sapiro (100m backstroke) qualified in August for the IPC world championships in Montreal.