Michelle Weber shows heart to qualify for Rio Olympics

Michelle Weber, who underwent surgery to correct a heart problem three years ago, ensured South Africa would have a female swimmer at the Rio Olympics when she qualified in the 10km open-water event at the weekend.

She and Chad Ho booked their spots for the Games in August in their respective races at the Olympic qualifying marathon competition in Setubal, Portugal.

Not one of SA’s female pool swimmers achieved a qualifying time at the national championships in Durban in April.

• SA women swimmers fail to qualify for individual events at OlympicsThe legacy of Penny Heyns’s feats from 20 years ago seems to be the encroaching green platina on the plaques in her honour at the King’s Park pool in Durban. 

But Weber, 19, broke the duck on Saturday as she ended sixth in a quality field where four of the five finishers ahead of her were 2012 Olympians.

The top nine swimmers qualify.

I'm over-joyed to have qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio later this year! Thanks for all the support ❤️ pic.twitter.com/bgf6yz6aFW

— Michelle Weber (@michelleweber71) June 12, 2016

Veteran Keri-Anne Payne, Britain’s SA-born former two-times world champion and 2008 Olympic silver medallist, was second in 1hr 55min 12.90sec, behind China’s Xin Xin in 1:55:12.10.

Weber, who clocked 1:55:49.70, had surgery in 2013 to correct a heart problem that had manifested at that year’s world championships, where she was unable to finish the 5km race and had to scratch from the 10km event.

It turned out she had an extra electrical pathway that used to cause her pulse rate to rocket to 240 beats a minute.

She was back in training four weeks after the surgery.

Ho, the 5km world champion, finished 11th yesterday evening, but he made it because a nation can qualify only one swimmer from this event, and Germany and Australia each had two in the top nine.

That made room for him and 10th-placed Yasunari Hirai of Japan, who missed out on qualifying at last year’s world championships by two-hundredths of a second.

Ho was nearly 20 seconds behind Hirai at those world championships, but yesterday he narrowed that gap to just four-10ths of a second, clocking 1:52:31.6 in the end.

The winning time by China’s Lijun Zu was 1:52:18.2.

SA’s aquatics squad will number 15 in Rio, with 10 male pool swimmers in individual events, plus two relay members, the two open-water competitors and diver Julia Vincent.

Meanwhile, Chad Le Clos, who climbed one spot on the 200m butterfly world rankings to fourth on Saturday, was outgunned by world champion James Guy in the 200m freestyle in Barcelona last night.

The South African, who scratched from the 100m butterfly to focus on this race, went out hard on the first lap, but Guy had edged into the lead after 100m, and then opened up the gap to almost half a body length at 150m.

Le Clos tried to hunt him down over the final 50m, but was unable to make up the difference.

Guy touched in 1:46.91 and Le Clos in 1:47.11, his best time this year so far.

Le Clos is likely to look for an Olympic medal in the 200m freestyle as well as in the two butterfly events.

Cameron van der Burgh was forced to withdraw, unable to shake off the virus that first felled him last week.