BRISBANE, Australia – South Africa's 'reserve' swimming team did enough to make the final in the men's 4x100 medley relay when they qualified in the heats at the Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast on Tuesday morning.
Martin Binedell, Michael Houlie, Ryan Coetzee and Calvyn Justus got the job done, combining for a time of 3:42.44.
In Tuesday night's final, Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh will be added to the mix and suddenly it’s a squad that has serious medal potential.
Ahead of them on the timesheets in the heats were Australia, England, Scotland and Canada. They will be looking over their shoulders during Tuesday night's final.
Also in the evening session is Brad Tandy, will swim in the men’s 50m freestyle final.
In the women’s 400m freestyle Duné Coetzee took to the water in the second of the three heats.
She had come into the event with a time of 4:14.40, but swam slightly outside of that, clocking 4:15.21 in her heat for sixth place and an overall 11th on the time sheets, which left her outside the eight for the final.
In the third heat, Kate Beavon and Kristin Bellingan were at opposite sides of the pool, in lanes eight and one, respectively.
Beavon finished sixth in 4:17.59, with Bellingan eighth in 4:20.92. That left them 12th and 15th overall and missing out on the final.
In the men’s 200m individual medley heats there wasn’t any luck for South Africa’s three representatives. Fastest of them was Jarryd Baxter, who finished third in his heat in 2:02.23.
Ayrton Sweeney (2:03.19) and Eben Vorster (2:07.11) were fifth and sixth in their respective heats, but none of them were quick enough to make the final eight. They placed 11th, 15th and 17th overall, with the cut off being 2:01.78.