Durban - Scenes of raw emotion played out at the Kings Park Pool in Durban last night as Jarred Crous became the third swimmer to qualify for his maiden Olympic Games.
The 19-year-old slapped the water in celebration before pointing to someone in the crowd after he kept up with a flying Cameron van der Burgh, who seemed hell-bent on breaking the national 200m breaststroke record. He stopped the clock short of the mark with a time of 2:10.13, but managed to drag Crous below the Olympic qualifying time of 2:11.66.
Crous touched the wall behind him with a personal best of 2:11.65, smashing his previous PB by four second. But that would serve as an afterthought as dipped one-hundredth of a second below the qualifying mark to book his place for the Games.
“You champion!” Crous’ father, Juan, exclaimed before they hugged in celebration of a feat that many dream of, but few achieve.
Elation replaced the disappointment from two nights before when the teenager narrowly missed the Olympic mark in the 100m breaststroke.
“It is an absolute incredible experience to be able to go to the Rio Olympic Games, my spirit was a bit down after the 100m but my coach (Igor Omelchenko) told me to put it behind me and focus on the 200m breaststroke,” Crous said.
Although he started out as a 200m breaststroke specialist, Crous trained and focused for the 100m distance going into the championships.
With Van der Burgh going out with a blistering pace, Crous said he had no choice but to “stick on his wave and see how fast I can go”. After the race, Van der Burgh embraced Crous over the lane rope, congratulating and welcoming another breaststroker onto the national team.
“I am just happy we’ve got a second qualifier, it was a good race where everybody just pushed each other, I’m just so stoked we’ve got some young guys coming up and also pushing me to be at my best,” Van der Burgh said.
“I didn’t even think about it (the SA record), come the Olympic Games that will be a target, it is an event I just want to have fun in and a good gauging milestone for my 100m.”
Ayrton Sweeney, though, failed in his attempt to the qualify for the Games, finishing third in 2:14.36.
Meanwhile, Christopher Reid won his 200m breaststroke semi-final in a time of 1:58.31, which was 0.09 seconds short of the qualifying time.
Reid has already qualified in the 100m breaststroke, and may have to consider scratching from today’s final to be at his best for the 4x100m medley relay time trial to qualify a team for the Games.
Calvyn Justus won the men’s 100m freestyle title with a time of 49.88 as the only one to dip below 50 seconds. He was followed by Myles Brown in 50.21, and Douglas Erasmus in 49.85. - Cape Times