Coveted SA relay spot open
Brad Morgan
16 May 2005
Swimming South Africa has named its squad for the FINA World Swimming Championships in Montreal in July. The selection includes a place yet to be won in the men's 4x100m freestyle squad that won gold in world record time at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Ryk Neethling, Roland Schoeman, and Darian Townsend are in the line-up, but Lyndon Ferns is set to miss the World Championships because of his studies at Arizona University, where he is following in the footsteps of Neethling and Schoeman.
Either Karl Thaning or Gerhard Zandberg will take up the open position, which is obviously a very prized one. With Schoeman and Neethling leading the way, South Africa should be in a strong position to add a World Championship gold to their Olympic gold.
Dominant sprinters
During the FINA Swimming World Cup Series, the pair proved to be the most dominant sprinters in the sport, with Neethling also proving his versatility as
he claimed 21 victories and won the overall title for his world record swim in the 100 metres individual medley in New York of 51.52 seconds.
For Thaning and Zandberg, it is in some ways a second bite at the cherry. They were involved in a swim-off for the fourth spot in the relay team in Athens, but Darian Townsend claimed that place.
Thaning, for one, is confident he can qualify for Montreal with a sub-51 second swim. He recently swam a 51.5 in Belgium, having trained for just five weeks. His aim, however, is more towards a time in the region of 49 seconds; at the Olympics he clocked a swift 49.25 in the medley relay.
Du Rand injured
One man who would surely have been selected, George du Rand, will miss the championships because of injury. Du Rand was one of the star performers at the recent Telkom South African Nationals in East London, where he shattered his own South African record in the 200 metres backstroke.
Du Rand
is currently ranked thirteenth in the 200 backstroke in short course swimming and nineteenth in the bigger long course pools.
Like Thaning and Zandberg, Tammy Laubscher has been named in the squad, but with the provision that she swims a qualifying time. She will have the chance to do that during the Mare Nostrum Series in Europe, where the competition will be top class.
Five women
Laubscher is one of five women named in the 16-member squad. It represents an encouraging change from the situation at the Athens Olympics, where the South African team featured no women.
Melissa Corfe is an up-and-comer who showed she has what it takes with a third-place finish in the 400 metres freestyle in the FINA World Cup in Moscow. Mandy Loots, by contrast, is a veteran who swam in the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.
Chanelle van Wyk is a young gun at just 15 years of age, while Suzanne van Biljon was the star of the recent national championships.
Van Biljon, 16, swam three qualifying times for the World Championships, twice in the 100 metres breaststroke, and once in the 200 metres breaststroke.
It is interesting to note that the breaststroke is the event in which South African women have enjoyed the most success in recent years. Both Penny Heyns and Saraw Poewe medaled at the Olympics in the stroke.
Two youngsters from the junior elite squad, Garth Tune and Thabang Moeketsane, have been named, while Jean Basson is rewarded for his strong performances at the national champs. Mark Randall and Troyden Prinsloo will contest the longer distance events. Like Melissa Corfe, Prinsloo shone at the World Cup in Moscow, picking up a bronze in the 800 metres freestyle.
SA TEAM
Men
Ryk Neethling, Roland Schoeman, Jean Basson, Thabang Moeketsane, , Mark Randall, Troyden Prinsloo, Karl Thaning (pending qualification), Darian Townsend, Garth Tune, and Gerhard Zandberg (pending qualification).
Women
Melissa Corfe, Tammy Laubscher (pending qualification), Mandy Loots, Suzaan van Biljon, Chanelle van Wyk.
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