DURBAN, April 22 (Reuters) – Chad le Clos laid down his
marker as a potential medal winner at this year’s Olympic Games
with multiple qualifying times (QT) at the South African
National Swimming Championships which finished on Sunday.
The 20-year-old dipped inside the Olympic mark in four of
the five races he entered and was among nine athletes who
secured trips to London.
The highest profile name to guarantee selection was
breaststroke specialist Cameron van der Burgh in the 100 metres.
Darian Townsend (200m individual medley), Riaan Schoeman
(400m individual medley), Gideon Louw (100m freestyle) and
Heerden Herman (1500m freestyle) were the other men to achieve
qualifying times.
Kathryn Meaklim (400m individual medley) was one of just
three women to make the team, along with Wendy Trott (800m
freestyle) and Karin Prinsloo (200m backstroke).
Le Clos, the 2011 FINA World Cup Series winner, achieved
qualifying times in the 200m individual medley, 400m individual
medley, 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly.
The Durban-based swimmer played down his medal hopes in
London.
“Obviously, I understand there’s going to be a lot of
expectation after these trials, but for me personally I know
that 2016 will be my main Olympics,” he told reporters.
The SA Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc)
has set stringent qualifying standards for its team in the wake
of their failure at the Beijing Olympics when the team failed to
scoop any medals in the pool.
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