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/ 11 April 2008

Getting ready for gold

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.

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/ 9 April 2008

SA swimmers shine 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.

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/ 8 April 2008

SA swimmers in Heathrow airport chaos

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.

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/ 4 April 2008

The ultimate meritocracy

Someone neglected to remind the participants at the South African National Aquatic Championship in Durban about the oft-repeated truism that the whole sports thing is more about taking part and less about winning. Perhaps even if someone had, the swimmers would not have been too bothered to listen.