South African hopes will once again rest on the shoulders of relay gold medallists Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling, who have qualified for Wednesday night’s 100m freestyle final.
Schoeman was in fighting form and led throughout his heat, making the turn in 22,66 seconds and touching the wall in 48,39 to beat The Netherlands’ Pieter van den Hoogenband into second spot by 0,16. Things were not so easy for Neethling, who went into the turn in seventh place, before fighting back to 49,18 for fifth position.
”It felt a bit long tonight but I’ve got 24 hours to rest, so I’ll be ready for tomorrow [Wednesday],” said Neethling.
Schoeman, rejuvenated after his morning heat, was pragmatic about his medal chances.
”I’ve got a three in eight chance [of a medal] so if all goes well then fine, if it doesn’t, that’s the way it will be.
”Pieter and Ian [Thorpe] will be fast. How fast I don’t know. Any handful of people can win it. Anything can happen tomorrow.
‘I think the big names are struggling a bit here for some reason. Why, I don’t know, I don’t care, I don’t mind. You know it gives us smaller names more opportunities,” said Schoeman.
The depth of the field is such that sixth-ranked Australian Ian Thorpe only managed to complete the final eight in a time of 49,21 seconds.
Schoeman confirmed that tactics had played a part in his slow swim in the morning heat.
”Yeah, a little bit [of tactics]. People are going to think I’m a bit tired — people are going to think I’m a sprinter.
”I just swam my own race tonight, the race I always swim, the race that I train myself to swim. I enjoy racing, hitting the pool, hitting the water and just swimming — it’s my dream.”
Terence Parkin was eliminated from the medal chase in the 200m breaststroke after he finished seventh in the first heat of Tuesday night’s semifinals. Parkin was never able to close the gap in a heat won by Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima in 2:10,86.
The Durban-based swimmer never matched his Sydney 2000 form and was an outside medal hope, given the 2004 rankings. However, there can be no complaint over Parkin’s effort, as he recorded a season’s best time of 2:13,58, which prior to the Olympics would have placed him into the top 20 times.
” I enjoyed it — it was hard, it was fast, ” said Parkin.
Parkin’s coach, Graham Hill, added that his charge’s silver medal time from Sydney (2:12,50) would not have been good enough to get him into this year’s final.
”The world’s got fast,” said Hill
Parkin will now rest up until the 4x100m medley relay. – Sapa