Marlies Ross‚ who trains with Michael Phelps and his coach Bob Bowman in the US‚ has been one of the female casualties at the SA championships in Durban this week. So far‚ not a single local woman has achieved a qualifying time for the Rio Olympics in August‚ although the strongest remaining chance is Tatjana Schoenmaker in the 200m breaststroke.She achieved the mark earlier in the year‚ but‚ according to local selection criteria‚ she must do it at this gala.Schoenmaker‚ who went 2min 27.84sec in Thursday morning’s heats‚ must speed up by 0.9sec to book her Brazilian ticket.Ross‚ a kinesiology student at Arizona State University since January‚ has already thrown in the towel after her hopes evaporated in her favourite individual medley event.“I’m just enjoying it now‚” she said after finishing her 200m breaststroke heat in 2:35.60.“I hoped for better [results at the gala] …“Training has been going pretty well so hopefully progress with the new programme and Bob and Michael will be really good for next year.”Ross praised her training partner Phelps‚ a winner of a record 22 Olympic medals‚ including the 200m butterfly silver medal behind SA star Chad Le Clos at the 2012 London Games.“I’ve trained with him. He’s an amazing guy. It’s someone to look up to every day.“Seeing him have motivation helps you as a swimmer [to] want to improve your training abilities and how you approach training and how you approach racing.“He’s taught me so much‚” she added.Bowman‚ the university’s head and middle-distance coach‚ had played a critical role too.“He’s helped me a lot and he’s taught me a lot these past few months. For starters we focus a lot on stroke count‚ stroke rotations‚ the speed of each cycle‚ what cycle can get you what time.”Ross said she had excelled in short-course swimming‚ where they compete in 25-yard pools‚ as opposed to 50m laps in Olympic-sized pools‚ also known as long course.“I’ve actually been exceeding the goals they’ve set for me - breaking the school record was one of them.“They didn’t think I would progress so much within the first three months so now we just need to put that into long-course metres.”Ross was in the SA team for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow‚ where she got the 4x100m freestyle relay team disqualified for diving in 0.06sec too early.“It’s not the greatest feeling in the world knowing you disqualified your team‚ but they were really supportive.“I promise you that will never happen again. I have trained my starts continuously. You learn from those mistakes.”– TMG Sport..