‘Old man’ Roland Schoeman leads the way in 50m butterfly title challenge

Veteran Roland Schoeman positioned himself to claim his first national crown in eight years as he set the pace in the 50m butterfly heats at the SA championships in Gqeberha on Sunday.

The 42-year-old clocked 23.98 sec, but he can expect competition from Clayton Jimmie and defending champion Pieter Coetzé.

Jimmie went 24.27, but with a 23.54 best he can pose a threat.

Coetzé, who downed Schoeman in the 50m freestyle on Saturday, later scratched from the butterfly final, which is scheduled a matter of minutes after the 200m backstroke decider. 

Shortly before the 50m fly heats Coetzé competed in the 200m backstroke heats where he was also third-quickest, but clearly in cruise control, touching in 2 min 06.87 sec. Expect him to hit the turbos in the evening final where he is likely to be far closer to his 1:56.05 personal best.

Helgaard Muller was the fastest in the morning in 2:05.91 ahead of US-based Ruard van Renen (2:06.21).

Emma Chelius made it fourth time lucky as she finally cracked a 50m freestyle A-qualifying time for the world championships in Japan, going 24.78 in a time trial.

She missed out on the 25.04 mark three times on Saturday, in the heats and final of the individual event, and then again swimming the first leg of the women’s 4x50m relay, where her Gauteng team set a 1:41.15 SA record.

One of her relay teammates, Erin Gallagher, was fastest in the women’s 50m fly heats in 26.40 and Hannah Pearse was the quickest in the women’s 200m backstroke in 2:14.03.

Duné Coetzee, the 800m freestyle champion, was the quickest in the women’s 400m freestyle heats as was Righardt Muller in the men’s 400m freestyle. 

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