DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - APRIL 17: Rene Warnes wins the 200m butterlfy during day 5 of the 2015 South African National Aquatic Championships at Kings Park Swimming Pool on April 17, 2015 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Anesh Debiky/Gallo Images)
The penultimate session of the April 13-18 meet saw just the two events take place at the King’s Park Swimming Pool. Gauteng’s Meyer won heat three out of four in a time of 4:31 13 to edge out Ayrton Sweeney of KwaZulu-Natal after he touched the wall first in the final heat in 4:31.74.
Sebsastien Rousseau (4:38.19), one of just four swimmers to record Qualification Time Standards (QTS) for the FINA World Long Course Championships in Kazan later this year, clocked the fourth fastest time.
The 24-year-old, along with the rest of the finalists, will be bidding to dip under the required QTS time of 4:16.71 in the evening finals in order to make the team that travels to Russia in July and August.
All participants at the nationals must meet stringent qualifying times set by Swimming South Africa in order to have a chance of making the team.
Along with Rousseau in the 200m butterfly, the three others that have already made the team are Myles Brown (200m, 400m and 800m freestyle), Cameron van der Burgh (100m and 200m breaststroke) and Chad le Clos (200m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 200m IM).
No female swimmers have met the qualification criteria as yet and Warnes will be looking to break that sequence later on Saturday.
She topped the qualifiers for the final thanks to a time of 4:53.02, well outside the QTS of 4:43.46.
Fellow KZN swimmers Carmen le Roux (5:03.20) and Megan van Wyk (5:03.89) were second and third fastest behind her.
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