The 34-year-old, participating in his 18th Nationals, raced through the two-lap event in a time of 50.17 to edge out Myles Brown (50.46), one of the stars of the April 13-18 competition so far, and golden boy Chad le Clos (50.48).
All three will be bidding to go faster in the semifinals or today’s final in a bid to make the Qualification Time Standards (QTS) of 48.99, which they need in order to qualify for the Fina World Long Course Championships in Kazan later this year.
The KwaZulu-Natal meet is doubling up as the trials for the July and August global spectacle, with participants needing to meet the stringent qualifying times set by Swimming South Africa in order to have a chance of making the team.
Only four swimmers have made the times so far – Brown (200m and 400m freetsyle), Le Clos (200m freestyle), Cameron van der Burgh (100m breaststroke) and Sebastien Rousseau (200m butterfly).
