Day five evening session of 2011 Telkom South Africa National Championship - Youth events
Fifth day of 2011 Telkom South Africa National Championship encountered the dazzling swims of Michael Barnes and Reynard Wessels in their respective events.
Apart from the senior swimmers, the championship is also providing a chance to youth swimmers, who intend to qualify for the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai during July.
The session included the finals of the 200m back-stroke, 50m freestyle, 400m freestyle and the 200m Individual Medley of Men and Women falling under the Youth category.
The session started with the dominating performance of Michael Barnes in the Women’s 200m back-stroke. Barnes of EP-EP, who remained a contender for the silver medallist until the last lap, presented a furious swim in the final lap to earn the gold medal
in a time of 2:20.87 minutes. Fsa-FS’s Jolandi C Els and KZNA-KZ’s Lindsay McLeod joined him on the podium after their silver and bronze effort in a time of 2:21.88 and 2:23.29 minutes. Despite of her gold deserving effort, Barnes failed to post a time under
the FINA A-Time Qualification Standard and remained unqualified for the South African Team to Shanghai.
Next was the Men’s 50m freestyle event, where Reynard Wessels of Fsa-Fs proved his eligibility for the crown after posting a time of 23.26 seconds effort. His time was 0.99 seconds above the FINA Time Qualification criteria but 0.54 seconds ahead of his
closest swimmer, Dylan MacMillan. CGA-CG’s MacMillan followed him on the finishing wall for the silver medal and posted a time of 23.90 seconds. They both were followed by NTS-NT’s Gideon Du Toit, who reached the podium for the bronze finish in a time of 24.50
seconds.
In the Women’s 400m freestyle, 18-year-old Natasha De Vos ruled her way to the finishing wall in a time of 4:22.62 minutes. De Vos kept her rivals at a bay from the start and enhanced her lead throughout the race. She was followed by KZNA-KZ’s Lindsay McLeod
and CGA-CG’s Zoe Venter, who reported in 4:26.40 and 4:28.39 minutes to claim the silver and bronze medal.
The last event of the session was the Men’s 200m IM, where the top two finishers engaged each other in a neck-to-neck battle. WPA-WP’s Zaahir Gamiet had an inevitable lead from NTS-NT’s Mar Husselman until the last lap, where Husselmann was 0.31 seconds
behind Gamiet on the last turn but sprinted his way in the final lap and besieged the crowd’s favourite by clocking a time of 2:06.47. Gamiet touched the wall for silver medal, clocking a time of 2:06.94 minutes ahead of his team member Ayrton Sweeney, who
earned the bronze medal in 2:10.41 minutes.
Until now, no youth swimmer has been able to qualify for the South African Team to Shanghai while the championship will conclude after the second session.
Tags: