Former swimming world record holder Gerhard Zandberg says Swimming South Africa needs to get its act together or they can expect an exodus of talent.
Preparations for next month’s world championships in Shanghai are off to a good start with a 14-medal haul for SA’s swimmers at Europe’s Mare Nostrum.
Tensions in South Africa’s swimming camp boiled over on Sunday as Roland Schoeman took a massive swipe at Gerhard Zandberg.
On the sunniest day so far of the Olympics Games, South African fortunes took a turn for the better.
South African athletes will not be given specific targets for Beijing, but will aim to better previous records and enjoy the challenging experience of the Olympic Games. The first batch of names of athletes and officials who will form part of Team SA were announced at Olympic House in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
South African swim stars Cameron van der Burgh and Gerhard Zandberg joined Shaun Harris and Lize Mari Retief in a morning of fast times at the Fina World Short-Course Championships in Manchester on Saturday. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry broke her third world record of the week.
Gerhard Zandberg kept South Africa’s fast-lane medal hunt on course with his 50m backstroke heats effort, coupled with fine performances by Melissa Corfe, Suzaan van Biljon and William Diering, at the Fina World Short-Course Swimming Championships in Manchester on Friday.
It took less than a week for South African swimmers to appreciate how tough international competition will be at the Olympics in August. Last Sunday Swimming South Africa announced a record 21 swimmers had posted Olympic qualifying times. But by Wednesday many of these stars had bombed out of the World Short-Course Championships in Manchester.
Gerhard Zandberg’s African record-breaking performance in the 100m backstroke, plus speedy times set by Cameron van der Burgh and Jessica Pengelly, gave the South African team much to cheer about on the opening morning of the Fina World Short-Course Swimming Championships on Thursday.
Gerhard Zandberg’s South African swimming contingent was caught up in the chaos at Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow airport in London, which caused the swimmers to miss their connection flight to Manchester. The terminal opened recently only to descend into disorder as its baggage-handling system broke down.
The Telkom South African National Aquatic Championships came to a thrilling climax at the Kings Park Aquatic Centre in Durban on Sunday evening with an unprecedented 20 swimmers posting Olympic ”A” qualifying times. It was a fitting ending to a sensational Olympic trial for the country’s swimmers.
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/ 6 February 2008
Swimming South Africa announced on Wednesday a full-strength line up for the Fina World Short-Course Championships in Manchester, United Kingdom, from April 9 to 13. President Jace Naidoo and national coach Dirk Lange said it is the strongest South African short-course squad selected to date.
Petite Lize-Marie Retief (20) of Pretoria again rose to the occasion on the fourth and last day of finals at the Telkom South African National Short-Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday, shattering the African and South African records for the women’s 100m butterfly.
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/ 20 September 2007
In a dramatic change to previous seasons, the Fina/Arena World Swimming Championships will be held over five weeks rather than several months, as was the case between 2003 and 2006. And, on a revised schedule, Durban will host the first leg of the seven events on October 19 and 20.