Christopher Reid on Monday joined Chad Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh in the limelight of local swimming as he blasted SA backstroke into the 21st century. Le Clos and Van der Burgh delivered performances expected of them on Monday night‚ Le Clos posting an Olympic qualification in the 200m freestyle semifinals and Van der Burgh easily winning the SA 100m breaststroke crown.But nobody anticipated the fireworks that 20-year-old Reid unleashed at the national championships in Durban‚ where he smashed the SA 100m backstroke record with a time that ranks him fifth in the world.It also easily qualified him for the Rio Olympics in August.With his rivals at his feet on the second lap‚ US-based Reid clocked 53.12sec in the morning heats‚ taking a second off his personal best and annihilating the previous 53.75 mark by Gerhard Zandberg eight years ago.It was a significant display.With Van der Burgh and Le Clos‚ SA boasts the fastest middle 200m of a 4x100m medley relay in the world.But the missing link for SA has been a swimmer to take out the opening backstroke leg of the relay in a competitive time.“It’s really exciting‚” Van der Burgh said of Reid’s swim.“We’ve always been lacking in the backstroke and being a breaststroker diving in two seconds behind everyone else has been quite demotivating.“It’s vitally important for breaststroke‚ especially out of the other strokes‚ because swimming in waves you swim through the water‚ not over and top of the water so you encounter a lot of drag‚” added Van der Burgh.The Olympic champion pointed out that a good start was critical in a relay.“If we can get the guys a good lead‚ like we saw with Roland [Schoeman] in Athens‚” Van der Burgh added‚ referring to the SA 4x100m freestyle relay team’s golden performance at the 2004 Games.“He gave the guys such a good lead he kind of made that relay for them.”Reid’s performance had head coach Graham Hill scheduling a time trial to try qualify the 4x100m medley relay during the gala‚ probably after the 100m freestyle final on Thursday night.“That gives me headaches. Nice headaches‚” he said with a beam.But no one was happier than Reid‚ the former Grey High pupil from Port Elizabeth who is studying quantitative finance at the University of Alabama.“We’ve got the fastest middle 200m in the world with Chad and Cameron‚ and I’d pull my weight in the backstroke‚” vowed Reid‚ who showed consistency going 53.23 in the evening semifinals.Either time would have placed him in the top seven at London 2012.“It’s been a plan of mine and my coach for the past three months to go hard at it from the beginning … try put up a top time in the world and it’s going exactly as planned.“It’s great to see the hard work starting to pay off.”Both Van der Burgh and Le Clos were ambivalent about their own performances on the night.“I’m happy‚ not happy‚” Van der Burgh said after winning in 59.66‚ his third Olympic qualifying time of the meet.“I’m more happy with where I am in my training. My speed is not there at the moment‚ but it will come with the next block of training.”Le Clos admitted his 1:47.88 was “a little bit slow”‚ but pointed out it was just the semifinals.“Nationals is a funny thing. You want to get the time‚ get the monkey off your back. That’s all I was trying to do.” - TMG Digital..