Swimming South Africa has released psych sheets for its National Championship meet, and as expected, star butterflyer Chad le Clos will take on a full schedule.
Le Clos, who has won FINA’s World Cup series the last two seasons on the men’s side, will swim both Olympic butterfly distances (100 and 200 meters) but will not contest the 50 fly. Instead, he’ll swim the 200 IM, 100 free and 200 free, likely looking to place himself onto South Africa’s 400 and 800 free relays.
Olympic champion and world record-holding breaststroker Cameron van der Burgh will also compete, swimming all three (50, 100 and 200) breaststroking distances.
Veteran Roland Schoeman is another notable name competing for South Africa. The 34-year-old sprint specialist will swim the 50 fly, 50 free and 100 free.
On the women’s side, 25-year-old Karin Prinsloo should be among the biggest factors. Prinsloo is ranked first or second in each of her 5 events: the 100 free, 400 free, 100 back, 200 free and 200 back.
Some current and former NCAA standouts will also be in action at next week’s meet. That list includes Marne Erasmus (SMU), Sebastien Rousseau (Florida), Michael Meyer (Arizona), Stephen Coetzer (NC State) and Franko Jonker (Texas A&M).
The meet also features one major foreign name, and that’s American teenager Michael Andrew. Andrew, a multi-time National Age Group record-breaker in the U.S., has family ties to South Africa and has been training in the country for some time now. He’s still clearly marked on the psych sheets with an asterisk, as he’s chosen to compete for the United States internationally.
Andrew will swim one of the busiest schedules of the meet. The 15-year-old is entered in the 50s and 100s of all four strokes, plus the 200 IM for a total of 9 event entries.
The South African National Championships will take place in two weeks, beginning on Monday, April 13 and running through Saturday the 18th.
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Okay, am I missing something? Is Michael Andrew able to just swim at their national meet or is he representing South Africa now? I’m guessing he is just swimming at their meet but what are the rules for that?
Will South Africa not consider times swum
within the US?? Most smaller countries allow their US based swimmers to compete at a meet locally and have their times count towards qualification.
I assume Tandy, Walsh and Bosch won’t return to South Africa because of cost and time it takes to get there. Seems foolish that swimming South Africa would insist they fly across the world at their own expense.
Has anyone else seen how little depth there is across the events?? Surely it would make more sense for US based swimmers to shave for the Mesa Grand Prix and have them qualify for the team that way!!
Ultimately swimming South Africa has proved over time that… Read more »
The question I have is how focused has MA been about training while on a family vacation? I would imagine he’s been able to relax while staying committed to practice, but hey, he’s 15 and traveling, I wouldn’t blame him if he took it down a notch. We’ll see what happens, though. I’d love to see him pop off some best times and aim for some high finishes! Even though he’s 2nd and third in a few things, I’d say the top dogs pretty much have things on lockdown, but there’s a few events (100 free, 100 back, 200 IM) where he stands to move up a few spots.
Jeez! Michael Andrew is seeded 2nd or 3rd in a LOT of events! Imagine being seeded 2nd behind an Olympic Champ and WR holder like van der Burgh (in the 100 breast) at a World Champ qualifying meet at age 15! Sounds like fun to me!
Where is Dylan Bosch?
wow no Bosch, Walsh, or Tandy on the psych sheet, Interesting
They always made a conversion according to his short course times.
Oh, ok. That makes more sense.
Ok that really scared me. How do u think andrew will do?
Le Clos has a 47.84 100 Free and a 1:54.76 200 IM to his name?
1:51.68 200 Fly and a 49.96 100 Fly…