Hill puts greater speed into Calvyn's strokes

22 May 2016 - 02:00 By DAVID ISAACSON

Calvyn Justus says his transformation from distance freestyler to 100m sprinter will be easy under coach Graham Hill. Justus, a 200m and 400m specialist, won the 100m crown at the SA championships last month - by fluke, he insists - to earn pole position for the freestyle leg of the 4x100m medley relay team that is eyeing a medal at the Rio Olympics in August."To be honest I don't think much has changed in my training. Graham has got a plan and I trust him," said Justus, who jetted out this week with the bulk of SA's swimming squad to a training camp in Doha.Hill performed the same alchemy with Darian Townsend, the fourth member of SA's victorious 4x100m freestyle relay team at Athens 2004.Townsend, a 200m specialist, got up to speed in the 100m to share glory with Roland Schoeman, Ryk Neethling and Lyndon Ferns 12 years ago.SA's medley relay also has three strong members - breaststroke king Cameron van der Burgh, butterfly star Chad le Clos and new backstroke ace Christopher Reid.Justus, who won his SA title in 49.88sec, says he needs to dip under 49 in the final leg of the relay."I wasn't focused on the 100m [before]. I never expected to win, I felt a little bit bad in a way, I was like 'sorry guys' ... Now I'm focusing on it."Justus's medley spot isn't guaranteed, and he must prove himself closer to the race against other contenders, like 50m freestyler Doug Erasmus and Myles Brown, a 400m and 200m freestyle qualifier.Justus, 20, is guaranteed a morning swim in the heats of the 4x200m freestyle relay, another Olympic medal possibility for SA.But he wants to be in action at night too - the three fastest in the heats will join Le Clos in the final, assuming they qualify.Justus won a silver and bronze as a morning relay swimmer at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and received his medals in a side room instead of on the podium. "You just walk in and say 'I'm the heats swimmer' and they give it to you in a bag. There's no ceremony or well done."Justus, a video blogger with two million hits on Facebook, was fearful before the first race of his international career in early 2013."I was crying in the call room I was so nervous. I couldn't press pause on my iPod I was shaking so much."But he insists he's ready for the pressure of the Games, already playing out the medley relay in his head."I'm imagining I'm going to touch the wall [and] throw up because it's going to be the hardest race of my life," he said."And then I'm just going to close my eyes for a while as my teammates hopefully jump up and down."..

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