Ryan Coetzee has missed qualifying for every major international gala the past few years‚ but on Tuesday morning he finally got it right as he clocked the fastest time in the 100m butterfly heats.
The 22-year-old accounting student in Tennessee was even quicker than Chad Le Clos‚ touching in a 52.57sec personal best in a separate heat.
Le Clos’s 53.20 was also good enough for the 54.12 qualifying mark designated by Swimming SA (SSA).
“I’m very happy‚” said a beaming Coetzee‚ who was congratulated at the warm-up pool soon afterwards by Le Clos.
“It’s been a tough four years‚” he said‚ explaining he had missed out on the last Commonwealth showpiece at Glasgow 2014‚ as well as the world championships earlier this year and the Rio Olympics last year.
“It’s been a little bit of a struggle‚ a lot of little things needed fixing and it finally happened.”
Coetzee had missed out in a few other events at this gala‚ and the one qualifying mark he had achieved‚ albeit unofficially in the 50m butterfly‚ is not recognised by SSA because it’s not an Olympic event.
“After last night’s 100m freestyle‚ it wasn’t too good‚ to come out and do my best is a relief.”
The former Affies pupil had flown back for this gala and will return to the US the day after Christmas.
Cameron van der Burgh (50m breaststroke)‚ Tatjana Schoenmaker (100m breaststroke) and Erin Gallagher (100m freestyle) posted additional qualifying times in the heats.
So far 20 swimmers have achieved SSA’s qualifying times.
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