Swimming South Africa Announces Remaining 2016 Grand Prix Schedule

Last year, we saw Swimming South Africa launch two new Grand Prix competitive events.  The first was held in Stellenbosch, with the second held in Durban. The events took place in consecutive weeks in February, drawing such talent as home country Olympic Champion Chad Le Clos and American Michael Andrew.

This year, SSA has announced two additional stops on the tour, bringing the number of Grand Prix events to 4 across January and February. Durban and Stellenbosch remain on the schedule, but Nelspruit and Port Elizabeth have been added:

SA Swimming Grand Prix 1
Nelspruit Swimming Pool, Nelspruit
January 9-10th

SA Swimming Grand Prix 2
Kings Park Swimming Pool, Durban
February 5-7th

SA Swimming Grand Prix 3
Newton Park Swimming Pool, Port Elizabeth
February 19-20th

SA Swimming Grand Prix 4
Stellenbosch University Swimming Pool, Stellenbosch
February 26-28th

‘Grand Prix 1’ has already taken place in Nelspruit last weekend, highlighted by Le Clos’ world-ranked 100m butterfly outing (51.82).

The next stop is slated for February 5th – 7th at Durban’s King Park Pool, with SSA indicating that more information will be available next week.  Important to note, however, is that none of the SSA Grand Prix meets appear on FINA’s list of Olympic-qualifying events. As such, swimmers can obviously use the meets as racing opportunities, but any FINA A/B cuts achieved at the meets won’t apply to Olympic-qualifying status. As it stands now the only Olympic-qualifying meets held in Africa are as follows:

SA National Level 3 Age Group Championships
Port Elizabeth
March 18-22nd

SA National Aquatic Championships
Durban
April 10-16th

Cana Zone IV Championships
Beau-Bassin
April 20-23rd