Olympic gold medalists Roland Schoeman, Chad Le Clos, and Cameron van der Burgh headline the 22-swimmer South African team roster for this summer’s 15th FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. The roster consists of nine men and eight women in the pool events, along with five additional athletes competing only in open water events.
To say South Africa’s World Championship selection process was “chaotic” or “tumultuous” would be understatement. First, it was revealed in late March that the South African Swimming Federation was unable to secure a major sponsor, meaning the athletes would have to pay their own flight and accommodation costs to participate. Then, South African Nationals received massive publicity for all the wrong reasons, when two burst pipes caused the meet schedule to be completely revamped.
There were a few more swimmers included on the roster than originally expected, with the most notable being van der Burgh. Initially, Swim South Africa announced that swimmers would be required to post FINA ‘A’ cuts in finals at nationals. However, the extensive meet delays and ultimate schedule tweaks forced van der Burgh to skip out on finals in the breaststroke events, due to a prior commitment to compete at the Alexander Dale Oen Memorial meet in Norway.
Swimming:
Men:
Myles Brown KZNA
Chad le Clos KZNA
Michael Meyer CGA
Darren Murray NTS
Roland Schoeman NTS
Leith Shankland KZNA
Cameron van der Burgh NTS
Gerhard Zandberg NTS
Giulio Zorzi NTS
Women:
Jessica Ashleigh – Cooper WPA
Trudi Maree WPA
Vanessa Mohr NTS
Tara Nicholas KZNA
Kyna Pereira KZNA
Karin Prinsloo NTS
Marlies Ross NTS
Rene Warnes KZNA
Open Water:
Men 10 km:
Chad Ho (KZNA)
Troyden Prinsloo (KZNA)
Men 5 km:
Chad Ho (KZNA)
Danie Marais (WPA)
Women 10 km:
Michelle Weber (KZNA)
Clarice le Roux (KZNA)
Women 5 km:
Michelle Weber (KZNA)
Kyna Pereira (KZNA)