Erasmus, who enjoyed a stellar 2015 and ended the year with a personal best time of 22.34 in the 50m freestyle at the Dubai World Cup, bettered himself again as he booked his spot in style for the event with an impressive time of 22.26.
This earned him silver at the SA Aquatic Championships in Durban, one-hundreth of a second inside the 22.27 Olympic qualifying time.
“This has always been a life-long dream,” he said.
“It’s the highest achievement in swimming and I’m on cloud nine regarding the qualifying. It’s a huge personal achievement.
“It was always hanging in the clouds because I swam some really good times last year so the pressure was on to qualify for the Olympics.”
Erasmus could also feature in the 4x100m medley relay team in a potentially impressive quadruple including himself (freestyle), Chad le Clos (butterfly), Christopher Reid (backstroke) and Cameron van der Burgh (breaststroke) should the national team coaches qualify him.
No SA women qualified for the Olympics in the pool.
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