Another national gala and once again Chad Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh stole the show.
Competing in Durban on the opening night of the SA championships, the duo bagged the only two A-qualifying standards for the world championships in Budapest later this year.
Van der Burgh achieved his in the 100m breaststroke semifinals, while Le Clos did his in the 100m freestyle in the opening leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay.
The veteran duo, who relocated to Cape Town at the beginning of the year to become stablemates, have six Olympic medals between them; they weren’t expected to struggle.
But the others here did, which is why Swimming SA has lowered the standards slightly, saying they will consider lesser B-criteria if the swimmers are young, female or black.
There were three of those, including schoolgirls Kate Beavon in the 400m freestyle and Rebecca Meder in the 200m individual medley.
But Beavon, 16, and Meder, 14, said their focus for the year was the junior world championships in the US rather than the senior showpiece in Hungary.
Only five men qualified for the last world championships in 2015, but that number should be surpassed here, even without B-qualifiers to boost it.
Le Clos, who clocked 48.64 for his new Western Cape outfit in the relay, said he was happy since leaving Pinetown.
“I’m in a really good environment with new coaches,” said Le Clos, who split from long-time coach Graham Hill after the Rio Games last year to join Italian Andrea Di Nino.
“I’m a different person to how I’ve been the past few years … I know that I’ve put in good work and I have people around me that are for me.
“I never what it was like training [any other way] I was with Graham for so long. It’s completely different training, like day and night.”
Le Clos and Van der Burgh have both made adaptations to their strokes, although the breaststroker admitted he was still looking to focus on swimming above the sports marketing company he has just set up.
Van der Burgh, also with Di Nino, is looking to break a minute after his 1:00.07 last night.
Olympian Matthew Meyer won the 400m freestyle in the absence of record-holder Myles Brown, but his 3min 49.55sec effort was only a B-qualifier.
For Meyer to get the nod for the 400m, he will have to crack at least one A criterion — if not both — in his other two events, the 800m and 1500m freestyle.
He’s looking for more than the qualifying mark in the mile, he’s eyeing the 14:57.88 national record held by Heerden Herman since 2010.
“I’m really going for that,” said the first-year accounting student, who nailed five distinctions in matric last year.
He had hoped to get the short of the 3:48.15 A-qualifying standard in the 400m freestyle, but he was happy with his time, a personal best by some two seconds.
“In a year I have taken seven seconds off my best in the 400m, so I’m happy with that.” - TMG Digital
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