The 2015 South African Short Course National Championships cam to its conclusion today from the JC Joliffe Swimming Pool in Pietermaritzburg, with some of the nation’s top swimmers in attendance. Stand-out South African, Chad Le Clos, was certainly using this meet as a tune-up prior to final preparations for the World CHampionships next month in Kazan.
Le Clos clocked a 47.71 in the men’s 100m freestyle semi-final, as well as a 51.05 in the semi-final of the men’s 100m butterfly. He would go on to scratch both events’ finals, which opened the door for his country mates to take over. And that they did, with 19-year old Calvyn Justus swimming away with the 100m freestyle (49.00), while 18-year old Daniel Ronaldson snagged the 100m butterfly (53.95) win. Justus would also go on to claim golds in the 200m freestyle (1:46.84) and 400m freestyle events (3:52.71).
Sprinter Brad Tandy got the job done in the men’s 50m freestyle show down, touching the wall in 21.75. That time now ranks Tandy as 3rd in the world in the short course version of the splash n’ dash. Tandy nearly owned the men’s 50m breaststroke title as well, but his time of 28.07 fell just shy of teammate Jarred Crous who won the gold in a time of 27.95.
The women saw 17-year old Marlies Ross snag multiple wins, including the 200m breaststroke (2:28.90), and a sweep of the IM events. Ross touched first in the 100m IM in 1:03.47, the 200 IM in 2:17.12 and the 400 IM in 4:41.70. In that 400m IM, Ross beat the field by an incredible 10 seconds to land within the world’s top 25.
Another up and coming South African star, Erin Gallagher, logged a new meet and African record with the 53.93 she threw down in the women’s 100m freestyle. Gallagher’s time dipped under the old record of 53.96 by three one-hundredths of a second. Karin Prinsloo swam her way onto the podium several times, snagging individual wins in the 100m backstroke (1:00.69), the 400m freestyle (4:11.48), as well as scoring a silver in the 100m free (54.70).
50 breast winner jarred crous will swim for the wisconsin badgers starting this fall. should be a big time ncaa swimmer.
His Freestyle is looking good. More importantly I presume Le Clos was using the meet to practice walls and starts.
Really hope to see some a good showdown for him in the 200m fly with Seto etc. and also in the 200m free, even with swimmers like Agnel and Hagino out. He could be a dark horse for gold.
Great SCM swimmer, but someone should tell him it’s LCM season.
There’s nothing wrong with being the reigning SCM 100/200 fly world champion……especially when you are also the defending 100/200 fly LCM world champion. What’s not to like? This is just a quick appearance to support a meet that needs a bit of star dust. He’s going to blow the competition away in Kazan…….and then the complaint will be that he is great at LCM and SCM but he has never accomplished anything in SC yards! Undefeated since 2012…… That’s all you need to know.