He may not admit it just yet, but Ryk Neethling may have swum his last international race.
The Athens relay gold medallist crashed out of the first round of the 100m freestyle on Tuesday after only managing a swim of 49,28 seconds to finish last in his heat. It was his second disappointment of the Games in as many days, after he and his teammates finished seventh in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Monday.
This was Neethling’s last opportunity here to bag an individual Olympic medal — something he was striving for at his fourth Games. But he was simply never in the race, as he admitted afterwards.
”There’s nothing I could have done more or better or focused more or anything. That’s all I had today and that’s the way it goes,” he said.
The 30-year-old star said he has not ruled out another appearance at the Olympics just yet.
”I think I have it in me if I want to. If I enjoy it, I’ll carry on. We’ll see how things go but it would be disappointing to finish like that,” he added, referring to the heat in which new world-record holder Eamon Sullivan swam a speedy 47,8 to finish as fastest qualifier.
”You work for two years for it and to produce that is very disappointing, but I know that I did everything in my power to get there,” explained Neethling.
”To be honest, for the last year my form hasn’t been where I wanted it to be and I tried everything. I threw everything at it. I moved away from home to try to focus more but it seems the harder you try, the slower you go.
”I had three or four years where I was doing everything I wanted to do and I was on top, but sometimes it’s just not there, as much as you try. I wish I had answers,” he said.
Neethling believes he still has a future in swimming.
”I think I’ve got a lot to offer people if they want to hear it and my door is always open. I can see myself doing that and that’s the plan with my academy [in Centurion] — to give something back after four Olympics, maybe five.”
Success
Meanwhile, there was happier news just a few minutes after Neethling’s race as fellow Athens gold medallist Lyndon Ferns safely negotiated his way through the 100m freestyle heat with a time of 48,26 seconds. It was a time that saw him finishing third behind former world-record holder Alain Bernard and ninth overall heading into Wednesday’s semifinal.
A little later in the evening, Kathryn Meaklim followed up her excellent performance in the individual medley with a record-breaking personal best time in the 200m butterfly. She won her heat in a new national and continental mark of 2:09,41 to make it through to Wednesday’s semifinal.
”It was more than two seconds off my best time, so I’m really happy with that. Maybe it was all the people watching that made me swim fast. I couldn’t really go out there and embarrass myself,” she joked afterwards. ”But my coach and I have been working really hard and obviously the hard work is starting to pay off.”
Record breakers
Six other South Africans put in record-breaking performances on Tuesday night. Both William Diering and Neil Versfeld dipped under the national and continental 200m breaststroke record in making their way to Wednesday’s semifinal.
Swimming in the same heat, Diering just edged ahead of his countryman to finish third in 2:10,39 while Versfeld finished in 2:10,5.
”I tried to take it out quite hard because people have been taking it out quite fast here, so I didn’t want to fall behind,” explained Diering. ”The second 100 I just tried to hold it. I did get a bit tired in the second 100 but I managed to hold on at least. Obviously I’m really happy. It was a close race there between Neil and I. It’s going to be another close race tomorrow [Wednesday] again.”
”The atmosphere is incredible. There’s no way you can swim slowly in this place,” was Versfeld’s first reaction.
”After the first 100 I turned and saw everyone there and knew the race was on and I had to push that third 50 pretty hard, so it was good. I’m not really worried about swimming a semi in the morning. The problem is just trying to get this lactic acid out of me tonight, trying to get a good night’s rest and hopefully come back a little faster.”
South Africa’s other record breakers for the night were the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team who took a five-second chunk out of their national and continental mark set at the Olympic trials earlier this year.
Jean Basson, Darian Townsend, Jasper Venter and Sebastien Rousseau swam 7:10,91 to finish fourth in their heat behind the United States’s Olympic record of 7:04,66 to book their spot on the starting blocks in Wednesday’s final. — Sapa