Only Fair that Neil makes it

TWENTY NINE swimmers have met the Commonwealth Games qualifying times but now it is up to the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee to rubber stamp their inclusion.

The last day of the swimming trials in Durban yesterday came to a rather anticlimactic end with only one more swimmer being added to the list of hopefuls.

In a diluted programme, with only two Commonwealth Games qualifying events on the schedule, Neil Fair become the 29th swimmer to post a qualifying time.

Fair had to be content with third place in the men’s 200m Individual Medley final but he managed to get his name into the hat for Commonwealth selection with a time of two minutes, 04.28 seconds (2:04.28).

He finished behind Jarryd Baxter and Ayrton Sweeney, who had already posted qualifying times earlier in the week. Baxter touched the wall first in 2:00.99 adding the 200m IM qualifier to that of the 200m freestyle and backstroke.

Sweeney, who also qualified in the 200m breaststroke and the 400m IM, followed shortly behind him in 2:01.28.

Young sensation Dune Coetzee raced to her third Commonwealth Games qualifier, winning the 400m freestyle in a new South African Under-15 record.

It was the third South African age-group record she set at the trials this week after she did the same in the women’s 200m butterfly and the 200m freestyle.

Yesterday she dipped nearly five seconds below the required mark in the 400m freestyle with a time of 4:14.53.

Kristin Bellingan, who already has the letter Q behind her name in the 800m freestyle, added the 400m freestyle with her time of 4:17.74.

Olympic gold medallist Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh will be the senior members of the team and will be making their third appearances at the global showpiece.

Le Clos qualified for four individual events – 100m and 200m freestyle and the 100m and 200m butterfly – he won a total of six individual and six relay medals from the 2010 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and Glasgow respectively.

Van der Burgh, in turn, has won gold in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke events at the 2010 Delhi Games and successfully defended his 50m breaststroke title before finishing second in the 100m distance in Glasgow.