Only 1 swimmer was added to the Swimming South African World Championships roster on the final day of competition from Port Elizabeth, and that is former Georgia star Neil Versfeld. He has been biding his time throughout the meet with a solid, but not qualifying, performance in the 50 breast, and a prelims DQ in the 100 (where he had a good shot at a FINA qualification). But this 200 breaststroke is by far his wheel-house race. He put up a 2:11.38 that ranks him 10th in the world this year.
Kathryn Meaklim, though already having earned her way to Shanghai in the 200 IM, added an event to her schedule in the women’s 400 IM with a winning time of 4:42.13. That time pushes her into the top 20 in the world in her best event.
In the men’s 50 free, Gideon Luow, who seems to be the heir apparent to the legendary South African sprint throne, took the win in 22.55. That was not a FINA Automatic Qualifier, but I suspect that he’ll be offered the chance to swim it in Shanghai, given that he’ll surely be attending for relay spots.
Roland Schoeman was just outtouched in a time of 22.61, and was pretty upset with how his week went. He commented that he was “very disappointed and not at all what I expected after killing myself all season.” This is despite event titles in the 50 fly and 100 free, as well as at least 1 automatic individual qualification for the World Championships. This may be a build-up of frustration following an illness-derailed World Championship in Dubai, but there’s still plenty of time to get where he wants to by July.
In the men’s 1500 free, Heerden Herman took the win in a great swim, with a time of 15:14.24. This swim missed the automatic-qualifying time by just over a second, but I think that he’ll earn a bid to swim the event in Shanghai. He was steady throughout the race, but appeared to have lost track of his pacing ever so slightly through the race’s middle 200 meters. He finished the race hard with a final split of 56.7, though, and likely would’ve clipped the FINA mark if he’d had a competitor to race against. Well out of contention for the championship, but still garnering a lot of attention, was 6th-place Charl Bouwer. Bouwer, who is already a South African Paralympian, swam a time of 16:33.79 to break his own S13 (less than 20% angle of vision) disability World Record for the 2nd-time in as many days.
In the other individual final on the last day of competition, Bianca Meyer won the women’s 200 fly in 2:13.82.
A second disability world record was set in the meet, this time in the 200 breaststroke by Kevin Paul. He cracked off a 2:29.42, over a second-better than his previous record (2:30.89). His S10 classification means that he has a “minimal physical disability,” which in this case is that he was born without a left pectoral muscle, and a smaller left hand and left arm.
I do think they will also try to find ‘room’ for a black swimmer or two…they have done this in the past….apartheid IX at its best.
does anyone know if the South Africans are only taking the people who have made the time standard or do the use ‘politics’ to pick some more? Also, are they allowed to swim the 100 back if they qualified in the 200 back or such a scenario?
The rules are 100% clear, but if you’d like to try and interpret them, here they are:
http://www.swimsa.org/Modules_BE/AdminConsole/Contentmanager/data/SSA-SW-211-FINAWORLDCHAMPIONSHIPSCRITERIA-210111.pdf
Sounds like they’ve left themselves room for politics with the statement that “considerations will be made in conjunction with the SSA requirements for gender and demographic equity.”
If nobody makes the time standards in finals, they have the discretion to choose the individual final winner only, so it seems, to take to the meet. I see it playing out thusly: Automatic qualifiers from A-finals will be taken first. Then swimmers who have A-standards, but didn’t swim those standards in finals of this meet. Then they’ll fill in with optional events for swimmers who qualified on their… Read more »