Athens - Roland Schoeman, a silver medallist in the 100m freestyle, has secured his place in Friday's 50m freestyle final with a superb display of sprint swimming in the first of Thursday night's semis.
Winning his heat in a time of 21,99 seconds, Schoeman saw off the competition from Spain's Javier Noriega, and Algeria's Salim Iles, who are ranked fifth and eighth in the World this year. His winning time is only 0,01 of second outside the time he set in the South African Nationals in Durban in April.
Australian Brett Hawkes set a new Ocean record of 22,07 seconds to finish second behind Schoeman, and USA Jason Lezak who shares a second place world ranking with Schoeman won the second heat in 22,12, all of which places the tag of favourite, clearly on Schoeman's shoulders. A third medal would make him the first South African ever to earn more than two medals from an Olympic games.
For teammate Lyndon Ferns it was an exit with honour in a time of 22,46 seconds.
"Tonight's swim wasn't a problem the excitement of the first two days sort of caught up in the few days after that - nothing went wrong I just never made it back - I thought I had a 22,1 seconds in me, but it looks like the relay took more out of me than I thought," said a disappointed Ferns.
"I reckon a 21,9 seconds will win it definitely, whether it will be Gary (Hall) or Roland I can't tell but it's going to be close and its going to be fast. I see two guys getting under 22 and a 22,1 will take third," said Ferns predicting the outcome of Friday's final.
The swimming may be over for Ferns, but there is a wealth of ambition yet to be satisfied.
"The atmosphere of the first day was incredible," he said. "Just working together the four guys are really supporting each other, even after the relay - I didn't make the final today and Ryk didn't swim.
"But I bet you Ryk's in the stand and we do everything we can (to assist each other)," said Ferns fielding the brunt of the media questions as a confident, relaxed looking Schoeman slipped past in the background as if to confirm that a pre-arranged decoy had worked.
The more the squad swim, the more it becomes obvious that this foursome have the ability, intelligence and common savvy to take their world-beating plans to the next level.
"We need to look at the changes when we get home - there have been a few already and hopefully if we can just build from here, we can be much stronger in 2008 in Beijing.
"I we can get big sponsorship for Swimming South Africa we will be better off, not personally (but as a sport). This is a stepping-stone to 2008. I'll be stronger then,' said Ferns. - Sapa