Day five evening session of 2011 Telkom South Africa National Championship- Men’s events
Fifth day of the 2011 Telkom South Africa National Championship concluded on Friday with the dominating performance of national swimmers, trying to qualify for the national swimming team to the 2011 Shanghai World Championships in July.
The championship has been a successful event, as various national records have been improved and more than 20 swimmers posted times under FINA Time Qualification Standard.
The session included the finals of the Men’s 100m butterfly, 50m breast-stroke and the 100m back-stroke along with the semi-finals of the Men’s 50m freestyle.
The session started with the Men’s 100m butterfly, where the crowd’s favourite Chad Le Clos cruised his way to the top finish, clocking a time of 53.51 seconds. Le Clos, who finished eighth in the 100m butterfly semi-final, demonstrated aggressive swimming
after the first lap to conquer the top of the podium. 18-year-old Heinrich Alberts followed him on the podium for the silver medal, touching the wall in a time of 54.12 seconds. NTS-NT’s Garth V Tune and CGA-CG’s Neil Watson remain engaged with each other
in a neck-to-neck swim. Tune out-touched him to ensure the podium finish, clocking a time of 54.39 seconds against Watson’s 54.48 seconds effort.
In the 50m breast-stroke final, Cameron Van Der Burgh displayed a spectacular swim and won the gold medal in a FINA qualified time of 27.24 seconds. His time was comfortably under the FINA A-Time Qualification Standard of 27.63 seconds. He was followed by
KZNA-KZ’s Neil Versfeld and NTS-NT’s Giulio Zorzi, who earned the silver and bronze medal in a time of 28.15 and 28.46 seconds. With his tremendous effort, Burgh will represent his country at the World Championships in July while Versfeld’s fate will be decided
after the championships, as he clocked a time under the FINA B-Time Qualification Standard.
In the 50m freestyle semi-final, Gideon Louw sustained his top qualification spot by qualifying as the fastest swimmer into the finals with a timing of 22.45 seconds. Louw once again managed to out-touch the defending Champion, Roland Schoeman in the second
round of the 50m event. Schoeman and Graeme Moore followed him into the finals, clocking a time of 22.55 and 23.02 seconds.
Later, Charl Crous posted a FINA qualified time of 55.03 seconds in the 100m back-stroke final to confirm his berth to China. Crous’s time was only 0.11 seconds under the FINA time criteria and earned him the gold medal. He was followed by NTS-NT’s Gerhard
Zandberg and Darren Murray, who climbed the podium for the silver and bronze finish in a time of 55.58 and 55.84 seconds respectively.
The championship will continue for one more day and Swimming South Africa will announce the national team for Shanghai.
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