Relay team lacks pace, says coach

18 May 2015 - 02:00 By David Isaacson

National swimming coach Graham Hill has given his 4x200m freestyle relay team the thumbs down, saying it was not fast enough to compete at the world champs later this year. SA will not enter any relay teams in Kazan, Russia, where they could have tried to qualify for the 2016 Olympics."We just didn't have the depth: the guys didn't go fast enough [at the national championships in Durban in April]," said Hill, who heads overseas on Thursday with a small national squad for training in Doha and competition in Europe.He said the relay teams could still qualify for the Rio Games at the national champs next year. That is how the 4x200m freestyle team qualified for the 2008 Olympics.US-based Dylan Bosch was unable to compete in Durban this year, and the gap he left was too much to be filled by the country's remaining three top 200m freestylers - Myles Brown, Chad le Clos and Sebastien Rousseau."Dylan will be back next year," said Hill, who has previously touted the 800m freestyle team event as SA's best chance of a relay medal in Rio. The foursome won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in 7min 10.36sec, over two seconds outside the SA record set during the fast suit era at the 2009 world champs...

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