Van der Burgh was quick off the block and confirmed his Olympic Qualification time in the 200m breaststroke with a golden 2:10.13, while 19-year-old Crous was over the moon with his first qualification time of the competition and the silver medal, clocking 2:11.65, just 0.01secs under the required 2:11.66. Ayrton Sweeney won the bronze in 2:14.36.
Christopher Reid just missed out on adding the 200m backstroke to his list of Olympic Qualifying times when he raced to a 1:58.31 in Thursday night’s semifinals, just 0.09secs of the required 1:58.22. Reid will be looking to better that performance in Friday’s final.
In the 200m breaststroke semifinals, Tatjana Schoenmaker, Franko Jonker and Kaylene Corbett swam the fastest to qualify for Friday evening’s final in 2:27.48, 2:28.70 and 2:32.29, while on the men’s side, Sebastien Rousseau, Neil Fair and Dylan Bosch topped the 200m individual medley semifinals in 2:01.21, 2:04.02 and 2:04.31, respectively.
Erin Gallagher and Karin Prinsloo finished first and second the 100m freestyle semifinals in 56.30 and 56.54, respectively and will both strive for faster times ahead of Friday night’s final, in the hope of clocking the set 54.43.
Rene Warnes was at the top of the medal podium in the 200m butterfly in 2:16.75, over six seconds ahead of Marli Jacobs in 2:22.25 and Hanim Abrahams in 2:22.46, while the 100m freestyle title went to Calvyn Justus in 49.88, followed by Myles Brown in 50.21 and Douglas Erasmus in 50.31
Two more Paralympic Qualifying Times were posted in the multi-disability events as Beth Nothling added her name to the growing list, finishing the 50m backstroke in 55.50 to the required 56.11.
