SA swimmers could qualify biggest world championship team in years

Even without Tatjana Smith and Chad le Clos, there could be sufficient talent at the national swimming championships starting in Gqeberha on Wednesday to qualify the country’s biggest world championship team in more than a decade.

According to the psyche sheets released before the gala, which concludes on Sunday, 16 swimmers have entry times inside the automatic entry standards needed for the world aquatics championships in Singapore from July to August.

Pieter Coetzé is inside the qualifying times in four events — the 200m, 100m and 50m backstroke as well as the 100m freestyle — while Rebecca Meder is on track for the 100m breaststroke, 200m individual medley and 200m breaststroke.

In some events there could be three swimmers dipping under the mark, though each nation can enter only a maximum of two in each discipline.

In the men’s 100m backstroke Coetzé, US-based Ruard van Renen and Wikus Potgieter all have entry times inside the 53.94sec A-time for the world championships.

Coetzé, Van Renen, the 100-yard bronze medallist at the recent NCAA championships, and Jonah Pool-Jones are in the 25.11 limit for the 50m backstroke, with Potgieter not far behind.

In the women’s 100m backstroke Olivia Nel and Milla Drakopoulos are inside the 1min 00.46sec standard, with Jessica Thompson just outside.

Nel, Thompson and Tayla Jonker are all on track to make it in the 50m backstroke, with Drakopoulos on the outskirts of the 28.22 mark.

Historically, Swimming South Africa do not select swimmers who qualify only in non-Olympic events, namely the 50m backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, a strategy aimed at ensuring swimmers focus on Games disciplines.

The last time the federation bypassed that rule was after the fiasco at the 2013 championships which were shortened after the Newton Park pool turned green, affecting the water quality. That year a total of 17 swimmers in individual events were selected, with Giulio Zorzi, who had qualified only in the 50m breaststroke, going on to win bronze at the world championships behind his gold medallist training partner Cameron van der Burgh.

Teenager Chris Smith, who broke the U-20 50m breaststroke short-course world record last year, is in the zone to qualify for the 100m and 50m breaststroke, with Michael Houlie also on track for the 50m breaststroke.

Meder and Kaylene Corbett, an Olympic finalist in Tokyo and Paris, could give South Africa two entrants in the women’s 200m breaststroke, where Olympic heroine Smith ruled unchallenged locally for the better part of a decade.

Aimee Canny will be looking to make it in the 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley.

Matthew Sates has only one entry time inside the qualifying standards, in the 400m IM, but if he rediscovers his best form he could also make it in at least three other events, the 200m freestyle, 200m IM and 200m butterfly.

It’s worth remembering, however, that some entry times are conversions from short-course pools where the laps are 25m. For example, Van Renen’s best in a long-course 50m backstroke race is listed by World Aquatics at 54.22, a shade outside the 53.94 he needs in Gqeberha.

Only eight South African swimmers qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but the qualifying standards then were faster in all disciplines except for two — the men’s 800m freestyle, which is quicker for Singapore, and the men’s 100m freestyle, which at 48.34 is the same.

The largest South African world championship team since 2013 was the squad from 2017, with 13 swimmers in individual events.

In 2011 the South African squad numbered 21 and included a young Erin Gallagher who should also make the team for Singapore.

Le Clos was also in the line-up in 2011 but he has taken an extended break.