SWIMMING NEWS - Olympians Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh will be among Mzansi’s aquatic stars who will be taking to the water at the KwaZulu-Natal Aquatics Premier Championships, doubling as the official Commonwealth Games Trials, taking place at the Kings Park Aquatics Centre in Durban, from 16-22 December 2017.
Some 460 swimmers will compete to secure a place in the final team that will be selected to represent SA in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia from 4th to 15th April 2018.
Straight from his fourth Fina World Cup title win, Chad le Clos will be looking to secure his place at next year’s competition when he participates in the 50, 100 and 200m butterfly as well as the 100 and 200m freestyle.
Also determined to book his place in the Commonwealth Team will be Olympic gold-medallist Cameron van der Burgh, who will race the 50 and 100m breaststroke events.
Other contenders include the likes of Douglas Erasmus in the 50 and 100m freestyle, long-distance swimmer Matthew Meyer in the 400m freestyle and the 1500m freestyle as well as the up and coming talents of Luca Holtzhausen (13), Luan Grobbelaar (15), Mariella Venter (17), Hanim Abrahams (15), Erin Gallagher (18) and Dune Coetzee (15).
On the ladies’ side, 20-year-old Tatjana Schoenmaker, who recently became the first South African to win a medal (silver) at the 2017 World Student Games in Taipei, with a personal best of 2:24.61, will be looking to better that time over the weeklong event, swimming the 50, 100 and 200m breaststroke, the 200m freestyle and the 200m individual medley.
