Second session of the 2011 Telkom South Africa National Championship: Day four - Men’s events
Second session on day four of the 2011 Telkom South African National Championship has concluded at the Newton Park Pool, in Port Elizabeth. The championship is a trial basis for the national swimmers to confirm their spots in the South African team to the
2011 Shanghai World Championships, in July.
The session included the events of 50m breast-stroke, 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly, 400m Individual medley and the 800m freestyle in the Men’s category.
The session started with the Men’s 50m breast-stroke semi-final, where NTS-NT’s Cameron Van Der Burgh posted a time under the FINA A-Time Qualification Standard of 27.63 seconds. Burgh clocked a time of 27.59 seconds to qualify as the fastest swimmer into
the final. He was followed by KZNA-KZ’s Neil Versfeld and his team-member Giulio Zorzi, who touched the wall in 27.95 and 28.32 seconds, respectively.
Roland Schoeman of NTS-NT displayed a dazzling swim in the Men’s 100m freestyle final. The 30-year-old Schoeman, touched the wall first in a time of 49.40 seconds and stayed only 0.17 seconds away from the FINA A-Time Standard. His team-member Gideon Louw
and KZNA-KZ’s Leith Shankland followed him on the podium for the silver and bronze medal in a time of 49.48 and 49.65 seconds, respectively.
Moments Later, Charl Crous presented a stunning swim in the 100m back-stroke semi-final that shattered the FINA A-Time Qualification bar. He clocked a time of 54.95 seconds that was almost a second faster than his following swimmer, George Du Rand, who touched
the wall second in 55.72 seconds. Darren Murray of NTS-NT secured the third fastest qualification spot in a time of 56.24 seconds.
In the Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final, Darian Townsend of KZNA-KZ showed his aggressive swimming skills by overwhelming his opponents with a stupendous 53.00 seconds effort. His time was considerably ahead of his closest swimmer WPA-WP’s Sebastien Rousseau,
who finished second in a time of 54.07 seconds.
In the Men’s 400m IM final, the 200m butterfly champion of the championship, Chad Le Clos qualified as the second quickest swimmer. Riaan Schoeman of KZNA-KZ surfaced as the fastest swimmer, touching the wall for the gold medal in a time of 4:17.29 minutes.
Le Clos demonstrated a challenging effort and touched the wall second in 4:18.67 minutes ahead of the Michael Meyer of CGA-CG, who ended third in 4:27.89 minutes.
The last event of the session was the 800m freestyle final, where Heerden Herman earned the gold medal in a FINA Qualified Time of 7:58.07 minutes. He was followed by BOR-BO’s Mark Randall, who also posted a FINA Qualified effort by touching the wall in
7:59.94 minutes. Troyden Prinsloo followed them on the podium for the bronze medal, clocking 8:06.09 minutes.
The championship will continue for two more days with the aim of completing of South African team to compete in Shanghai, this July.
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