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Gideon Louw, pictured, and Charl Crous produced two of the impressive performances during the morning session, on day one of a two-day international swimming invitational.

Gideon Louw and Charl Crous produced two of the impressive performances during the morning session, on day one of a two-day international swimming invitational in Durban on Saturday.

Louw swam 49.48 seconds to win his 100 metre freestyle heat at the Kings Park Pool, which was the best time of all the qualifiers.

The American-based Louw, who had already done an Olympic qualifying A-time, was over two seconds faster than closest challenger Brett Walsh (51.73) on his way to sealing a place in the final.

Crous continued to build his reputation as one of South Africa’s finest young prospects by swimming a magnificent 54.82 in the 100m backstroke, 0.42 seconds short of the tough qualifying time.

That helped him qualify ahead of Gerhard Zandberg (57.09) for the evening semifinals and final, while another prospective youngster Darren Murray (57.48) also made it through.

The trio are amongst a host of South African swimmers, that are yet to satisfy the first part of a stringent SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) policy, that requires them to record an Olympic A-standard time twice during a 10-month period, including once at the national trials in April.

The others are Karin Prinsloo, Suzaan van Biljon, Riaan Schoeman, Mandy Loots, who also had little trouble progressing to the final of their respective events.

Five swimmers, who have already met the qualifying standard, also progressed to the final easily.

They were SA Swimmer of the Year Cameron van der Burgh, Chad le Clos, Louw, Kathryn Meaklim and Vanessa Mohr.

Kirstie Coventry, the highest profile foreigner in the field, also eased through comfortably by winning her heats in the 200m Individual Medley (2.20.86) and the 50m backstroke (28.70). – Sapa