RSA Delhi Squad Rises To 14
Apr 17, 2010 - Craig Lord
On the last night of racing at South African nationals and trials, Roland Schoeman blasted a 22.04 to win the 50m freestyle and Neil Versfeld, Heerden Herman and Mark Randall made the Commonwealth Games cut to take the RSA team to 14.
Versfeld won the 200m breaststroke crown ahead of Cameron van der Burgh, the leader until 150m before fading on the way home. The target was 2:13.69 and Versfeld blew past that with a following wind, claiming victory in 2:11.74, with with Van der Burgh on 2:15.49 by the wall, his first hard 200m race - and not a bad one at that for the sprinter. VD Burgh said: "I am quite happy with my time. I cannot expect to move from the 50m/100m to 100m/200m overnight."
Herman clocked 15:06.75 to Randall’s 15:09.75 to give South Africa two lanes in the Delhi distance race, both men well inside the 1,500m target time of 15:13.16.
Schoeman is now third so far in the world this year behind the two sub-22sec men over in France, Fred Bousquet (21.71) and Fabien Gilot (21.97). In the Commonwealth, Schoeman's closest rival so far is Australian Ashley Callus, on 22.09sec.
The 14 inside target time for a passage to India: