2017 KZNA Premier Champs & Commonwealth Trials
- December 16th-22nd, 2017
- Durban, South Africa
- LCM (50m)
- 2018 Commonwealth Games Trials
- Commonwealth Games Standards
- Live Results: Meet Mobile, search “KZNA Premier Champs & Commonwealth Trials”
4 Commonwealth Games standards were cleared on the first day of competition at the 2017 South African trials in Durban. The standards have been softened significantly from the ones used at the 2016 Olympic Games, which saw no women qualify, and are similar to the one used last year when 5 women qualified individually, along with 2 relays.
Day 1 Qualifiers:
- Calvyn Justus, 100 backstroke, 55.47
- Ayrton Sweeney, 200 breaststroke, 2:11.64
- Erin Gallagher, 100 fly, 58.93
- Brent Szurdoki, 300 free, 3:53.24
Noticeably absent from the first day of the meet was Myles Brown, who was on the World Championship team but is not entered at this week’s meet. Superstar Chad le Clos also didn’t race on the first day of the meet – he’s scheduled for the 100/200 freestyles and 50/100/200 flys.
The big names will begin later in the meet, but some fresh faces brought excitement to the opening day of the event. 24-year old Ayrton Sweeney’s first qualification came in the 200 breaststroke, where he beat the field by 5 seconds. He qualified in this race for last year’s World Championships, but scratched it to focus on the 200 and 400 IMs instead. His 2:11.64 is almost exactly 2 seconds faster than the time with which he was entered at Worlds, though, so that may bring him a greater motivation to swim the race on the Gold Coast this season.
Szurdoki, meanwhile, qualified for his first senior international squad at 21 years old with a 4-plus second win of his own. Szurdoki swam 3:53 in Saturday’s final, but has been a 3:51.
Gallagher, meanwhile, went under 1 minute for the first time in her career. Her best time coming into the day was 1:00.77 – which she dropped by almost 2 seconds.
There were 2 other open events held on Saturday.Tatjana Shoecnmakr won the 50 breaststroke in 31.44. That’s not a qualifying event for the Commonwealth Games. The only other open event of the day was the 400 IM, which was won by Jessica Whelan, who finished in 4:55.25 – less than a tenth better than Marlies Ross (4:55.32). That’s a second-and-a-half short of the qualifying time.
