Durban – Sebastien Rousseau produced the most impressive performance on the opening morning of the South Africa National Aquatic Championships, edging out Olympic gold medallist Chad le Clos and Dylan Bosch in the 200 metres butterfly heats in Durban on Monday.
All three men recorded sub-two minute times, with the Western Cape swimmer quickest with a time of one minute, 58.52 seconds.
Le Clos looked comfortable on his way to winning his heat in 1:59.08, while Bosch, who broke the NCAA or American Universities' record in the same event just under 10 days ago, was third in 1:59.52.
All three, however, were just outside the qualifying time of 1.57:03 for the 2014 Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow later this year.
The six-day competition at the Kings Park Aquatics Centre is doubling up as the nationals as well as the official qualification event for the July 7 to August 3 spectacle in Scotland.
Elsewhere, Myles Brown was quickest in the 400m freestyle after posting a time of 3:54.02, while Gerhard Zandberg topped the 50m backstroke with a time of 25.38, comfortably ahead of Darren Murray (26.05) and Charl Crous (26.15).
On the women's side, Olympian Karin Prinsloo was the quickest qualifier in the 200m freestyle after touching the wall first in a time of 2:02.65, ahead of Rene Warnes (2:03.46) and Marlies Ross (2:03.77).
Ross was instead fastest in the 200m individual medley, after a time of 2:16.30, coming in ahead Warnes (2:19.79).
Vanessa Mohr was quickest in the 50m butterfly, clocking a time of 26.94 seconds, while the best 50m breaststroke time went to Justine Macfarlane (32.12).
Finally, Carmen le Roux was the fastest qualifier in the 1500m freestyle with a time of 17:18.74.
All swimmers must record the stipulated qualifying times this week if they want to have a chance of making the Team South Africa squad for the Commonwealth Games. – Sapa