Chris Reid on Monday ignited the morning heats of the second day of the SA Olympic Trials in Durban when he smashed Gerhard Zandberg’s national 100m backstroke record with a time of 53.12 seconds.
The 20-year-old posted an Olympic qualifying time slashing his personal best by more than a second, and in the process to book his ticket for the Rio Games in August.
Reid’s time ranks him fifth in the world going well below the previous record of 53.75 seconds Zandberg set at the Beijing Games in 2008.
In the build-up to the championships, Reid signaled that he would be swimming fast times when he dipped below the qualifying mark three weeks ago with a time of 54.13 seconds in Atlanta.
“I was going to go at it from the beginning in all three swims, and put on a top time in the world, so it went exactly as plan,” Reid said.
“I made the cut three weeks ago in Atlanta after our national championships at college, and I wanted to get the qualifying time under my belt so that there is less pressure on me.”
Double Olympic medallist Chad le Clos started his campaign in the pool in the 200m freestyle advancing to tonight’s semi-final with a time of 1:49.85.
Earlier, Mariella Venter posted a new personal best time of 1:01.81 in the women’s 100m backstroke to edge her closer to the Olympic qualifying time of 1:00.25.
Four swimmers have already booked their places to the global showpiece on the first day of the SA Swimming Championships.
Olympic gold medalist Cameron van der Burgh already dipped below the qualifying mark during the heats before doing it again in his semi-final when he clocked a time of 59.69 seconds.
During the evening’s finals Sebastien Rousseau and Michael Meyer both set qualifying times in the men’s 400m Individual Medley before Myles Brown added his name to the list in the 400m freestyle.
In what turned out to be an intriguing tussle between the two swimmers Rousseau wrested the lead back over the freestyle leg to touch first in a time of 4:14.75 with Meyer hitting the wall shortly behind him in 4:15.71. Ayrton Sweeney bagged the bronze medal in a time of 4:24.48.
With his time of 3:48.86, Brown dipped well below the qualifying time of 3:50.44 to secure a place in what would be his maiden Olympics.
Independent Media