A bright star must have been shining down on 21-year-old Charl Crous of Durban’s Seagulls Club on Wednesday as he beat the A standard Olympic qualifying time (OQT) for the men’s 100m backstroke final at the third session of the 2012 Swimming SA National Championships and Olympic Trials at the Kings Park Aquatic Centre.
Crous also beat the standard of 54.40 seconds the previous evening in the semi-final, but only performances in a final are considered in determining if a swimmer is good enough for the 2012 Olympics.
Crous was chased to the timing pads by Darren Murray (Northern Tigers), who just missed the cut in 54.80 with Ricky Ellis (Central Gauteng) third in 56.16. When he had got his breath back, Crous said: “It’s the most tremendous feeling to have made the qualifying time, I have worked so hard for it.”
The former Westville High School pupil, who was originally from East London but is now coached by Graham Hill, Swimming SA’s head coach, said that he wished to dedicate the race to his grandfather who had been diagnosed with cancer.
He was also hoping to be selected for one of the relay teams that will represent SA at the London Games.
“Golden Boy” Chad le Clos continued his run of success, winning his semi-final of the men’s 200m butterfly in 1:55.30, which was well under the OQT of 1:56.86.
The winner of the second semi-final was Sebastien Rousseau, (WP) who was timed at 1:57.63. Le Clos said he was enjoying himself at the championships and still had two major races to tackle, the 200m butterfly final tonight and the 100m butterfly on Sunday.
Another success story was Kathryn Meaklim making the Olympic qualifying time in the women’s 200m individual medley semi.
Her time of 2:13.33 just squeaked under the OQT of 2:13.36, but was something she had been working towards for some time.
“I am so happy,” she said, “to be in a position to swim twice at the Olympics after already qualifying for my best event, the 400m individual medley. But I am going to have to do it all over again in the final tomorrow night.”
But if there was lots to cheer about Wednesday night there were also moments of sadness, and it was a big disappointment for the crowd, and no doubt himself, when Darian Townsend (KZN) failed to break the OQT in the men’s 200m freestyle final, something he dearly wanted to do.
His winning time was 1:47.88, just 0.06 of a second off the required mark of 1:47.82.
It was Gauteng’s Jean Basson who set the pace for most of the race, leading fractionally at the half-way mark in 52.35 and at the turn for the last leg in 1:19.92, with Townsend and Rousseau a split second behind.
Townsend then took over the lead and was cheered all the way to the timing pads, but to no avail with Rousseau second in 1:48.69 and Basson third in 1:48.70.
Townsend, who does his training in Arizona, said that he was naturally unhappy about his time, but that all was not lost as he still had his main race to come on Saturday, the 200m individual medley.
He needs to swim a 2:00.17 or better to get the OQT in that race.
There is also the possibility that a freestyle relay team may be selected for the Games, but for that to happen the combined best times of the four swimmers selected for the team must be ranked in the top five in the world.
Leone Vorster (Northern Tigers) was way off her SA long-course national record of 1:58.78 for the women’s 200m freestyle, clocking 2:02.12 in last night’s semi-final.
The second-fastest qualifier for tonight’s final was Karin Prinsloo (NT) in 2:03.78, with Wendy Trott (WP) next in 2:03.79, all looking to match the qualifying time of 1:58.33.
There was no Olympic candidate in the women’s 100m backstroke final, which was won by Prinsloo in 1:01.52, compared with the OQT of 1:00.82.
Jessica Ashley-Cooper (WP, 1:02.47) was second and Lehesta Kemp (NT, 1:04.07) third.
Prinsloo remained optimistic that she would crack the OQT in her main race on Saturday, the women’s 200m backstroke.
Suzaan van Biljon (NT) was a comfortable winner of the women’s 100m breaststroke final in 1:08.76, which was very close to the OQT of 1:08.48, but two seconds outside Penny Heyns’s national record of 1:06.52 which has stood since 1999. – The Mercury