Good times at invitational
Riaan Schoeman took a step closer to his Olympic Games dream on Saturday night when he swam a qualifying A-time in the evening session on day one of a two-day international swimming invitational.
The 22-year-old came second in the 400 metres Individual Medley in a time of four minutes, 16.02 seconds, finishing behind teenage prodigy Chad le Clos (4:14.93).
Both finished inside the required 4:16.46 time, meaning they have fulfilled the first part of a stringent SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) policy that requires a swimmer to record an A-standard time twice during a 10-month period, including once at the national trials in April.
Le Clos had already hit qualifying times in two of his other races, the 100m and 200m butterfly, and will be hoping to also qualify for the 200m IM on Sunday.
"It's another huge step for me and I've now got times in three out of the four races I want to swim in at London 2012," Le Clos said.
"I'm really thrilled about it and I'm glad Riaan also made it."
"I'm very relieved to have got the first qualifying time under my belt," said Schoeman.
"I still have to do it once more as you know, but if I prepare well, I'm sure I can hit the mark again at trials."
The only other A-time achieved on Saturday came from Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry, the highest profile foreign swimmer in the field.
The double-Olympic gold medallist swam a 2:12.65 in the 200m IM, although she had already met the requirements set out by her country.
Cameron van der Burgh, one of nine athletes to have already met the first part of the Sascoc criteria prior to the competition, finished a surprise second in his 50m breaststroke final.
The SA Swimmer of the Year for 2011 recorded a time of 28.75 and was pipped by Neil Versfeld, who swam 28.72.
Versfeld also finished ahead of Van der Burgh in the 200m breaststroke , with the two finishing first and fifth respectively in times of 2:16.25 and 2:19.29.
Amongst the others that had already achieved the required times, Gideon Louw won the 100m freestyle in 49.37, Le Clos won the 200m butterfly in 2:59.00, Vanessa Mohr came second and fourth in the 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle.
Kathryn Meaklim, another who has done an A-time, narrowly missed out on the Olympic time in the 200m IM, where she finished second behind Coventry in a time of 2:14.11, less than a second off the London time.
The win for Coventry was one of three on the evening as she also won the 50m and 200m backstrokes.
Another Olympic hopeful to have missed out on qualifying times was Karin Prinsloo, who came second in two races, the 50m freestyle (26.23) and 200m freestyle (1:59.48).
Charl Crous won the 100m backstroke in 54.86 and Gerhard Zandberg (55.92) finished second, with both still narrowly outside the qualifying time of 54.40.
Mandy Loots won the 100m butterfly final in 1:00.54, well short of the required 58.70 time.