2016 South African Swimming Grand Prix
- Dates: Friday, February 5th-Sunday, February 7th, 2016
- Friday: Prelims – 7:00 pm local (12:00 pm EST/9:00 am PST)
- Saturday – Finals – 12:00 pm local (5:00 am EST/2:00 am PST)
- Saturday: Prelims – 7:00 pm local (12:00 pm EST/9:00 am PST)
- Sunday: Finals for Saturday’s prelim events – 12:00 pm local (5:00 am EST’/2:00 am PST)
- Live results
The two biggest stars at the South African Swimming Grand Prix, Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, both picked up two wins on the Saturday afternoon in Durban.
le Clos took the men’s 200 butterfly in a time of 1:56.42 beating the field by over six seconds. In the prelims, which were held on Friday evening, the Olympic champion posted a quicker time of 1:56.27. His time in prelims is the third fastest time done in 2016, but does not match the time of 1:55.80, which he put up in November at the World Cup in Doha.
le Clos then went on to win the men’s 50 butterfly, a victory that did not come easy. le Clos hit the wall in a time of 24.67 only 13 one-hundredths of a second ahead of Douglas Erasmus who finished in a time of 24.80.
van der Burgh’s first event of the finals session was the men’s 50 breaststroke where he put up a 27.74 to take the event. His time is exactly one second slower than the 27.74 which he recorded at the World Cup event in Paris-Chartres in August.
His second swim of the afternoon was the 200 breaststroke where he won the event in a time of 2:16.31. The event came down to the last few strokes as Aryton Sweeney had a lead of over a second with 50 meters to go. He could not match the finishing speed of van der Burgh and finished second in a time of 2:16.58.
le Clos and van der Burgh were not the only two to have multiple wins on Saturday. 15 year old Kate Beavon and Mariella Venter also collected two gold on Saturday. Beavon took the women’s 800 freestyle in a time of 8:54.89 and followed that up with a win in the women’s 200 IM posting a 2:21.66.
Venter won both backstroke events touching in a 29.43 in the 50 and 2:12.92 in the 200.
Other winners included:
- Men’s 100 freestyle – Calvyn Justus – 50.66
- Men’s 400 IM – Jarryd Baxter – 4:27.78
- Women’s 200 freestyle – Karin Prinsloo – 2:03.53
- Women’s 100 breaststroke – Tatjana Schoenmaker – 1:09.93
- Women’s 100 butterfly – Vanessa Mohr – 1:01.17
- Men’s 100 backstroke – Ricky Ellis – 56.90
- Men’s 400 freestyle – Marwan Elcamash – 3:55.37
- Women’s 50 freestyle – Jessica Ashley-Cooper – 26.13