Roland Schoeman and Chad Le Clos qualified for their first event at world titles in Barcelona this summer with the top two times in the semis of the 50m butterfly on the first day of nationals and trials in Port Elizabeth. 

Schoeman, on 23.17 in heats and  23.23 in his semi, booked lane 4 for the final tomorrow ahead of a 23.78 for Le Clos, Olympic 200m champion. Fred Bousquet and Florent Manaudou clocked 23.00 and 23.14 respectively at French nationals last week.

The other South African to win gold in the pool at London 2012, Cameron Van Der Burgh confirmed his place in Barcelona this summer with a 1:00.71 in the 100m breaststroke semis.

The Barcelona cut for 400m freestyle set at 3:49.55 in South Africa, Myles Brown was frustrated with a 3:49.80 victory a pool apart from the rest but with no ticket to show for it. The 400m free for women was won by 17-year-old Kyna Pereyra, in 4:17.03, well outside the 4:09 cut for world titles.