Nelspruit – Other than a solid swim by Olympic gold medallist Chad le Clos, the men’s 100m freestyle was a damp squib during the first leg of the SA Swimming Grand Prix here last night.
The country’s top freestyle swimmers are battling it out for a place in a 100 freestyle relay team for the Rio Olympic Games in August.
Le Clos was the only swimmer to break through the 50-second barrier in the blue riband event, touching the wall first in a time of 49.22 seconds.
He was followed by Calvyn Justus in 50.42sec, while Caydon Muller bagged the bronze medal in 50.76sec.
The 23-year-old Le Clos believed his 100m freestyle was at a level where he could challenge for Olympic silverware, but a clash with his pet 200m butterfly event would deny him the opportunity.
“In terms of my freestyle preparations, it is going really good, my 100m is looking sharp. I mean, I swam the 48.1 last year unshaven and I feel I can go 47 seconds,” Le Clos said.
“It is unfortunate the (Olympic) 100m freestyle comes just before the 200m butterfly final; it is almost impossible to attempt both.
“It is an option and I believe my 100m freestyle is one of the best in the world. And in 2017 I would like to win the world titles in the 100m freestyle – that would be my goal.”
He posted the sixth fastest time in the 100m freestyle in 2015 with that 48.16sec in the Moscow leg of the Fina World Cup.
The rest of the freestyle swimmers will need to make the step up if they want to make the country’s relay dreams a reality and are expected to swim a sub-49sec 100m race.
Le Clos was confident the country would be able to assemble a strong relay team that would be able to challenge for a medal.
“We need four 48s if we want to medal, and I believe I can go 47 seconds, which brings the average down, but I believe we will have a good team as long as we have four to five guys that can get that spot,” he said.
“You have to challenge for medals and I believe the guys are excited about it, and we proved it at the world shortcourse champs in 2014 when we came fourth.
“The talent is there and the boys just need to focus, and I believe we will have a relay team and we will be strong.”
Le Clos rounded off the first day of swimming with victory in the men’s 50m butterfly, posting a time of 24.14sec, with Clayton Jimmie touching in second place in 24.71sec, and Reynard Wessels third in 25.13.
There were some relatively slow times which is understandable this early in the season with most of the swimmers fresh from swimming camps.
Nathania van Niekerk was one of the standout women’s swimmers yesterday, finishing on top of the podium in both the 50 and 200m backstroke.
She won the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:16.33 ahead of Abi Meder with 2:24.48, while Kristin Bellingan claimed bronze in 2:25.14.
The 16-year-old Van Niekerk has her sights set on going to Rio in the 200m backstroke with her personal best time of 2:11.87 little over a second off the qualifying mark of 2:10.60.
“I just came out of a week-long training camp, so I was hoping for a 2:17 and I was able to get it down to a 2:16 tonight, so you could say I am a second ahead of schedule. I am very happy,” Van Niekerk said.
“I am hoping to qualify for the Olympic Games, my personal best is quite close to it. It is still very early in the season and I am trying to get as close to that time in training.
“So if I shave down and taper, hopefully I can get down to the 2:10 mark.”