South African swimmers got their Commonwealth Games campaign in New Delhi off to a great start, by producing five qualifiers for Monday's 'A' finals.
According to SASCOC, Sebastien Rousseau and Chad le Clos, both produced fine performances in their heats to book a spot in the men's 200m butterfly final. Mark Randall and Jean Basson did likewise in the men's 400m freestyle and the men's 4x100m team, defending Commonwealth champions, went through after being placed third behind Australia and England for tonight's final.
Rousseau has suddenly loomed as a major medal prospect after winning his heat in 1 minute 57.45sec, which was second fastest of the morning, though it has to be said that you could throw a blanket over qualifiers second to eighth, with six men inside 1:58. One of those was Le Clos, on 1:57.45.
The big surprise of the men's 200m butterfly was the elimination of strong gold medal favourite, Nick D'Arcy, which makes tonight's final even more of a lottery, but the good news is that South Africa is holding two tickets.
In the men's 400m freestyle, Mark Randall clocked 3:51.40 in winning his heat for fifth quickest overall, while Olympian Jean Basson was involved in a tough heat that included Canada's gold medal favourite Ryan Cochrane. - Buanews
