Le Clos and Van der Burgh bid to win SA's first medals on Wednesday

Chad Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh bid to win South Africa’s first medals of the world championships in Budapest on Wednesday.

Le Clos competes in the 200m butterfly while Van der Burgh competes in the 50m breaststroke.

Halfway through the gala they are the only two swimmers to have advanced beyond the heats.

Zane Waddell and Ayrton Sweeney were the latest casualties on Wednesday morning.

Waddell was blown out in the heats of the 100m freestyle where his rivals delivered lightning performances.

The winner of the SA title in 49.09 in April‚ he would have been disappointed with his 49.99‚ which was more than a second outside what was needed to make the evening semifinals.

Waddell was also last in his heat‚ but there were some others who went even faster but still ended last in their races‚ like Poland’s Kacper Majchrzak‚ who dipped under 49 seconds.

It was‚ however‚ fast enough to rank him in the top half of the field‚ 46th out of 113.

Sweeney was ninth in his 200m individual medley heat in 2min 04.18sec for an overall ranking of 32‚ almost four seconds short of what he needed to make the top 16.

He went 2:01.69 in April.

The SA mixed 4x100m medley relay team of Martin Binedell‚ Kaylene Corbett‚ Clayton Jimmie and Erin Gallagher ended fourth in their heat and 14th overall in a 3:57.02 African record.

- TimesLIVE