Le Clos Wins 3rd Event, But Run for 8 Golds Ends on Wednesday at SA Nationals

South Africa’s star swimmer Chad le Clos entered Wednesday’s finals session at the 2014 South African National Championships with an eye toward completing his historic run to 8 gold medals at South Africa’s National Championships.

In his first race of the session, le Clos won the 200 back to take his 3rd title in three days, but later, in the 50 fly, his run would meet its end at the hands of another star of South African swimming in the last decade: Roland Schoeman.

First, a reminder of South Africa’s established qualifying times to earn an invite to the Commonwealth Games this summer.

Qualifying Times for the 2014 Commonwealth Games

Men’s 200 Back – FINALS

In the night’s first finals session, Chad le Clos roared his way to a 1:57.93 win in the 200 backstroke. Le Clos is still primarily a butterflier, but one wouldn’t know that from the way he handled this race (he’s actually a pretty good backstroker, and in Rio we might actually see him swim the backstroke leg of a South African medley if they enter one). He very-nearly even-splitting the race at 58.56-59.37 for his 100m splits.

That also cleared the qualifying standard in the event, though it remains to be seen if le Clos will hold onto this event this summer or is just trying it at these trials, where the clock and history are his primary competitors in his primary qualifying events.

That theme of being uncontested this week held true at the final touch of this 200 backstroke, but le Clos was pushed hard early; in fact, he wasn’t even in the lead half-way. That honor belonged to Darren Murray, who wound up 2nd in 1:59.68 (going out in 58.43). Christopher Reid (2:00.58 – 3rd) and Ricky Ellis (2:01.96 – 4th) were also well within contact of le Clos for most of this race.

Men’s 50 Fly – FINALS (non-qualifying)

Though it isn’t a qualifying event, we’ll skip ahead now to the men’s 50 fly, which came about two-thirds of the way through Wednesday’s finals session.

There, the 33-year old veteran Roland Schoeman held the top seed through the semi-finals of this race, well ahead of le Clos. While it was clear that le Clos was saving his steam for finals, Schoeman’s lightning-fast start is still with him into his 30’s, and he easily tipped le Clos 23.11 to 23.86.

Schoeman’s 23.07 from the semi-finals is still the world-leader in 2014.

Schoeman sat out the 100 free semi-final earlier in the session, which indicates that his focus at this meet will be this 50 fly, already out of the way, and hitting the 22.33 invitational standard. Schoeman is the only swimmer still competing for South Africa (Darian Townsend is now skipping his second-straight selection meet) left from that legendary 2004 Olympic gold medal winning 400 free relay.

Whether or not Schoeman’s proven speed in the 50’s is enough to get him onto a South African 400 free relay will be up to them, though in the past couple of years he’s been passed up for that relay event even when he did race it at trials. That history means Schoeman seems unlikely to swim a relay at the Commonwealth Games.

Women’s 100 Free – FINALS

Heading back to the beginning of the session, sequentially, Karin Prinsloo hit a 2nd qualifying standard, winning the women’s 100 free in 54.48. That puts her up to 13th in the world this year in the event. That might not sound significant, but between this race and her 5th-ranked 200 free, Prinsloo ranks very high in the world in multiple events. That’s significant for a federation that is making a hard push to improve their overall women’s ranks through funding young, 14-16 year old female swimmers. Those young swimmers now have a versatile role model to look up to in their own ranks who is sitting high in the world rankings.

It was also the first of two National Records for Prinsloo, breaking her own 54.97 in the event from 2012.

Two of those young swimmers finished in the top 4 of this race: 15-year old Erin Gallagher took 2nd in 56.70, and 16-year old Marlies Ross was 4th in 57.25.

Joining them, in 3rd, was Trudi Maree, who took 3rd in 56.84.

Women’s 200 Breast – FINALS

The women’s 200 breaststroke saw two swimmers get within a second of the qualifying standard, but ultimately come up just short. Frank Jonker, based out of Texas A&M in the United States, got the win in 2:28.66, and Justine Macfarlane took 2nd in 2:28.74.

For Jonker, her time spent training with arguably the best American 100/200 breaststroker Breeja Larson has shown marked improvement. She didn’t race at South Africa’s nationals in 2013, but in 2012 at 19 years old she was only a 2:40 in this 200 breaststroke. That’s a 12-second drop in two years.

MacFarlane, on the other hand, added time in this race from her 5th place swim at Junior Worlds last year (though that swim in Dubai was a big drop for her). She’s only 18, though, and so has plenty of time to get back-on-track toward an Olympic qualification.

Third-place in the race went to 16-year old Tatjana Schoenmaker in 2:29.18.

Women’s 100 Back – FINALS

Karin Prinsloo picked up her third win and third qualifying standard with a 1:00.83 in the women’s 100 backstroke, pacing just ahead of Jessica Ashley-Cooper (1:01.65). Cooper went out very well in this race, but she couldn’t hold off the on-fire Prinsloo coming home.

Prinsloo’s time puts her under the qualifying standard again and breaks her own National Record of 1:00.95 set in 2012. Ashley-Cooper’s leaves her a couple-of-tenths short of a bid for Glasgow, though she was on South Africa’s 400 medley relay at Worlds last year.

Men’s 100 Breast – FINALS

Closing the session’s individual events, Cameron van der Burgh exerted himself for the first time in the three rounds of the men’s 100 breaststroke with a 59.50.

While that time isn’t all-that-close to the time from Christian Sprenger at Australia’s nationals, it’s enough to make the world take notice. The time is quite-a-bit faster than the one with which van der Burgh qualified for the 2012 Olympics, though there’s no good data point from last year when he skipped this 100 breast final (re: green pool).

Perhaps disappointingly, Giulio Zorzi won’t be joining him at Worlds, at least based on South Africa’s stated standards. He was 2nd in 1:02.31, which is well short of the invite time – Zorzi was the bronze medalist in the 50 breast at Worlds last year. That 50 was the only event he was invited for or swam at Worlds, so he has at least a prayer of reprieve from the federation for the Commonwealth Games.

Qualifying After 3 Days

Men
Chad le Clos (200 fly, 200 back)
Dylan Bosch (200 fly)
Myles Brown (400 free)
Cameron van der Burgh (100 breast)

Women
Karin Prinsloo (100 free, 200 free)

Semi-Finals and Relays

• Leith Shankland led the next generation of South African sprinters with a 50.23 for the top seed in the men’s 100 free. 18-year old Caydon Muller was 2nd (50.43), Chad le Clos was 3rd (50.59), and Joshua Steyn took 4th in 50.74. The qualifying standard of 48.93 is still a long reach away for the entire field.
• Marne Erasmus went under a minute for the second-straight round with a 59.72 in the semi-finals of the women’s 100 fly. Her twice under that barrier is twice more than any South African was under a minute in the event in all of 2013. She’ll now have to reload and try to get under the qualifying standard in Thursday’s final – which would take a lifetime best for her. Vanessa Mohr won the other semi in 1:00.77, which gives her the 2nd seed, and Rene’ Warnes sits 3rd in 1:02.14.