SA hosts own pool party after Perth snub

Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh are to compete in a new local grand prix swimming series next month aimed at giving South Africa's top-level swimmers more competition.

To get them used to swimming hard in the morning, the format will see evening heats and morning finals.

The series will begin with two events, in Stellenbosch from February 13-15 and in Durban from February 20-22.

Swimming SA CEO Shaun Adriaanse said: "It was going to be three events but we had to scale it down."

He said the contest was not a replacement for the tri-nations gala in Perth, from which South Africa was booted.

The South African team was initially invited to compete in Australia for three years from 2013 to 2015, but in November Swimming SA was informed they would not return as scheduled later this month. South Africa, which had finished last at the last two Perth galas, was replaced by the US.

Said Adriaanse: "It would have been nice to participate [in Perth]. I don't know what the reasons are [for being dropped].

"We were going to do this [the GP events] anyway. We wanted to create opportunities for our top swimmers.

"At the moment we have only two high-level events - the SA Nationals and SA Short Course [Championships]."

Asked if Le Clos and Van der Burgh would compete, Adriaanse replied: "They must - this series is for them."

Without a title sponsor since 2012, Swimming SA has been short of cash, but Adriaanse said the cost of the series would not be significant because the affiliates - Western Province Aquatics and KwaZulu-Natal Aquatics - were hosting the galas.

A unique feature of the GP events was switching the heats and finals around. One reason was to keep accommodation costs down to two nights instead of three because swimmers could arrive on the Friday morning before the heats, and leave on Sunday afternoons, after the finals.

At recent international galas, qualifying past the morning heats has become an issue for some of South Africa's swimmers.