Chad le Clos continues to pile up gold medals, taking his 6th and 7th events at the South Africa National Championships with a world-leading 100 fly. Meanwhile 33-year-old Roland Schoeman jumped onto the Commonwealth Games roster by hitting the qualifying time in prelims and semifinals of the 50 free.
Tara Nicholas became just the second South African woman to make a cut time; she won the 100 breast and joins Karin Prinsloo on the squad.
Tomorrow will be the final day of competition at these South African Nationals.
QUALIFYING TIMES FOR THE 2014 COMMONWEALTH GAMES:
| Men’s Standard | Women’s Standard | |
| 22.33 | 50 m Freestyle | 25.34 |
| 48.93 | 100 m Freestyle | 54.86 |
| 1.48:42 | 200 m Freestyle | 1.58:74 |
| 3.49:55 | 400 m Freestyle | 4.09:81 |
| 800 m Freestyle | 8.34:33 | |
| 15.14:38 | 1500 m Freestyle | |
| 54.43 | 100 m Backstroke | 1.01:39 |
| 1.58:48 | 200 m Backstroke | 2.11:09 |
| 1.00:86 | 100 m Breaststroke | 1.08:63 |
| 2.12:78 | 200 m Breaststroke | 2.27:88 |
| 52.57 | 100 m Butterfly | 58.89 |
| 1.57:03 | 200 m Butterfly | 2.09:38 |
| 1.59:99 | 200 m Ind. Medley | 2.14:97 |
| 4.18:99 | 400 m Ind. Medley | 4.44:53 |
Men’s 100 Fly
It was national icon Chad le Clos who took the first final of the session, going 52.14 to take over the top spot in our world rankings by just .02 over Aussie Christopher Wright. Le Clos was previously 10th on that list. This is the 6th win of the meet for le Clos, and gets him under the Commonwealth Games qualifying time.
2014 LCM Men 100 Fly TYR World Ranking
PHELPS
51.17
| 2 | Chad LE CLOS | RSA | 51.29 | 07/28 |
| 2 | Tom SHIELDS | USA | 51.29 | 08/08 |
| 4 | Konrad CZERNIAK | POL | 51.38 | 08/23 |
| 5 | Tim PHILLIPS | USA | 51.49 | 08/08 |
Brett Walsh went 53.84 to finish solidly second. 17-year-old Joshua Steyn rode a big back-half (the second-fastest final split of the field behind le Clos) to a third-place finish in 54.13.
Women’s 50 Free
Top seed Trudi Maree held her spot in the women’s 50. The 25-year-old beat field of young names with a 25.78, just a tenth off her semi-finals swim.
Jessica Ashley-Cooper went 26.30 for second place, and 24-year-old Lehesta Kemp was .03 back in third place. After the top three, the next 6 swimmers were all 19 years old or younger in a very youth-oriented event depth-wise.
Men’s 50 Breast (Non-Qualifying)
100 breast champ earlier in the meet, Cameron van der Burgh continued to dominate the stroke at what’s mostly a swim-through for the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 100. Van der Burgh went 27.29, a few tenths off his 27.05 (ranked #2 in the world) from the semi-finals.
Giulio Zorzi put up a 28.18 to take second place, with Jared Pike was third in 28.40 coming off a collegiate season with FSU.
Women’s 200 Back
Karin Prinsloo added her third Commonwealth Games qualifying event by winning the women’s 200 back. Prinsloo, currently the only woman to qualify for the roster, won the race by 4 seconds in 2:10.32. That sits just outside of the world’s top 10 for 2014.
Nathania van Niekerk went 2:14.46 for second before another very big dropoff to a 2:17.41 third-place.
Women’s 100 Breast
Tara Nicholas became the second woman to add her name to the Commonwealth Games roster, sneaking under the cut time by the narrowest of margins in the 100 breast. Nicholas, who trains at SMU in the United States, went 1:08.59, just .04 under the qualification standard.
Second in the event was Justine Macfarlane in 1:09.67; she had to touch out Franko Jonker (1:09.79) for runner-up honors.
Men’s 100 Back
The men’s 100 back went to Darren Murray in a touchout. Murray topped Charl Crous by just .02 for the win. Murray was 54.98 while Crous went 55.00.
Ricky Ellis was just behind at 55.14 in the race, with 17-year-old Bryan Gray fourth at 56.21.
Women’s 400 Free
Karin Prinsloo returned to win her second event of the session in a tough 200 back/400 free combo. the 24-year-old Prinsloo went 4:12.98 racing the clock in this one. She did drop over 8 seconds from her preliminaries swim, but wasn’t able to get under the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard in a second-straight event.
Michelle Weber, a 17-year-old, took second place at 4:17.53, beating out Caitlin Kat for the spot.
Women’s 50 Back (Non-Qualifying)
After her runner-up finish in the 50 free, Jessica Ashley-Cooper went 29.25 to pick up gold in the women’s 50 back. That was slightly off her prelims time of 29.19, but still paced the field by half a second.
16-year-old Jamie Reynolds took second in 29.76, the only other swimmer under 30 seconds.
Men’s 200 IM
Chad le Clos returned in the final individual race of the day to bookened the finals session with wins. Le Clos went 1:57.94 to take the 200 IM with yet another Commonwealth Games qualifying time.
The event featured another Commonwealth Games cut time, this one by Dylan Bosch. The college national champion went 1:59.23 for second place and his second Commonwealth Games cut after first qualifying in the 200 fly.
Those two powered out on the field, leaving a 6 second gap between them and the rest of the field. Both men also got into the top 10 in the world ranks, with le Clos now 4th and Bosch 6th.
2014 LCM Men 200 IM TYR World Ranking
HAGINO
1.55.34
| 2 | Ryan LOCHTE | USA | 1.56.02 | 08/24 |
| 3 | Michael PHELPS | USA | 1.56.04 | 08/24 |
| 4 | Daiya SETO | JPN | 1.57.08 | 09/05 |
| 5 | Thiago PEREIRA | BRA | 1.57.23 | 12/18 |
| 6 | Conor DWYER | USA | 1.57.41 | 08/10 |
| 7 | Daniel TRANTER | AUS | 1.57.66 | 04/06 |
| 8 | Hiromsa FUJIMORI | JPN | 1.57.77 | 04/12 |
| 9 | Thomas FRASER-HOLMES | AUS | 1.57.88 | 04/06 |
| 10 | Chad LE CLOS | RSA | 1.57.94 | 04/11 |
QUALIFYING AFTER 5 DAYS
Men
Chad le Clos (200 fly, 200 back, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 IM)
Dylan Bosch (200 fly, 200 IM)
Myles Brown (400 free)
Cameron van der Burgh (100 breast)
Sebastien Rousseau (400 IM)
Roland Schoeman (50 free)
Women
Karin Prinsloo (100 free, 200 free, 200 back)
Tara Nicholas (100 breast)
Semi-Final:
- At 33 years old, legend Roland Schoeman added his name to the Commonwealth Games roster, hitting the qualifying standard for the 50 free in prelims and semifinals. Schoeman went the exact same time in both swims, 22.04. Just a tenth off the qualifying mark is NCAA co-champion Brad Tandy in what’s probably his best shot at the squad.