Sweeney brings life to SA Swimming Champs

The 21-year-old won the national 200m breaststroke title and in the process dipped under the Qualification Time Standards (QTS) of 2:11.66 for the global spectacle to be held in Kazan later this year.

Sweeney’s time of 2:11.64 was two hundredths of a second inside the required mark, which competitors have to meet in order to make the team for Russia.

“It was just complete euphoria when I looked up at the clock,” Sweeney said. “I’ve never been so excited to see a time in my life.

“I feel this is a real gateway for me now and it’s the biggest moment of my career.”

Sweeney joined four other swimmers to have done QTS this week. Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh posted times in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke, while South Africa’s golden boy Chad le Clos (52.03) added a fourth time on the final night when he raced to 100m butterfly gold — dipping narrowly under the qualifying time of 52.36.

He had already qualified in the 200m freestyle, 200 Individual Medley (IM) and 200m butterfly.

Sebastien Rousseau, the last of the quartet, posted the third qualifying time of the night when he claimed the gold medal in the 400m IM in a time of 4:16.07, beating the 4:16.71 by over half a second. The 24-year-old also did a QTS in the 200m butterfly.

In other finals on the last night of action, veteran Roland Schoeman (22.50) won 50m freestyle gold, Matthew Meyer (15:35.82) took the 1500m freestyle crown and Martin Binedell (2:00.79) was 200m backstroke champion.
The women ended a disappointing week with no qualifying times. Four titles on offer on the last day with Erin Gallagher (56.46) winning the 100m freestyle and Tatjana Schoenmaker (2:29.23) taking 200m breaststroke gold.

Rene Warnes (4:49.04) was the 400m IM champion and Vanessa Mohr (27.29) took top prie in the 50m butterfly.