Ryk Neethling made a token appearance on the opening day of the Telkom South African National Swimming Championships in Durban on Tuesday.
The Jo’burg-based swimmer, who has just returned from winning triple gold at the World Short Course Championships in Shanghai, cruised through the heats and finals of the 50m freestyle on Tuesday but explained afterwards that he will now be taking a break from all competition and training for the next month-and-a-half.
”This is my 16th consecutive nationals and I don’t think I have anything to prove,” Neethling said after winning his semifinal in a time of 22,74 seconds.
”I wanted to come and swim here because it was my 16th, but it’s time to look at the bigger picture and I need a break,” he added, explaining that he will not even contest Wednesday night’s final of the 50m freestyle.
”The thing that bothers me about swimming in South Africa is that people don’t look at the big picture. There are all these fights at provincial level, but there’s a lot more to swimming than that. We need to be looking ahead and planning for Beijing in 2008.”
Neethling said things are rather different now compared with 1991 when he first competed at national level. ”We weren’t competing internationally then, so nationals were a huge thing, like the Currie Cup final,” he said.
As for the change in the line-up 16 years on, he added: ”It’s quite funny, I think at my first nationals I was swimming against half the guys who are now the coaches on the pool deck here.”
Neethling plans to resume training on July 1, when he will begin preparations for the 2007 World Championships.
Meanwhile, in other action on Tuesday night, Melissa Corfe raced her way to the top of the podium in the 400m freestyle in a time of 4:17,16.
Cape Town swimmer Wendy Trott was next to the wall in a time of 4:18,36. Leone Vorster was third in 4:22,05 while Paralympic star and recent double gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games Natalie du Toit was fourth in 4:23,47.
In the men’s event it was Du Toit’s fellow Commonwealth Games medallist Troyden Prinsloo (who bagged the bronze in the 1 500m freestyle in Melbourne) who comfortably took top honours in 3:54,47, with Morne Boshoff second in 4:00,66 and Riaan Schoeman third, just one-hundredth of a second behind.
In the only other finals of the evening, Central Gauteng’s Craig Groenewald (26,34) and Norway’s Mariann Vestbostad (35,49) topped their respective fields in the multidisability 50m freestyle. — Sapa