South Africa withdrew from the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay heats at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Saturday morning, citing the workload facing the country’s top swimmers.
The decision came as a surprise the morning after both the men’s and women’s 4x100m outfits had won bronze on the opening night of the gala on Friday.
Based on Friday’s times, the team would have comprised the likes of Aimee Canny, Olivia Nel, Pieter Coetzé and Chad Le Clos with Ruard van Renen probably doing duty in the morning, but most of them were in competition in individual events on Saturday morning.
A Team South Africa official said they chose to scratch to focus on other events. As it is, the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay is not an Olympic event.
Coetzé had a break in the morning, but he is aiming for gold in the 50m backstroke final on Saturday.
Canny won her 100m breaststroke heat in 1min 06.68sec — the second-fastest time overall — with Rebecca Meder touching fourth in 1:07.93.
Kaylene Corbett was second in the final heat in 1:07.37 to ensure all three will compete in the evening semifinals.
Van Renen was the quickest South African in the men’s 100m butterfly heats on Saturday, touching second in 52.14 with teammate Jarden Eaton fifth in the same race in 52.84.
Le Clos, the Games champion in this event in 2014 and 2018, was second in the next race in 52.53.
All three will compete in the evening semifinals.
Nel, who anchored the women’s 4x100m freestyle team, was fourth fastest overall in the women’s 100m backstroke heats, finishing second in the final race in 1min 00.59sec, not far off her 1:00.33 national record.
Jessica Thompson also advanced to the evening semifinals, touching fourth in her semifinal in 1:01.54. Hannah Pearse, a 200m specialist, missed out.
Calvyn Justus finished third in his heat in 22.00 to progress to the evening semifinals, with Guy Brooks also earning a spot with his 22.99 effort.
Michael Houlie, who broke the Games 50m breaststroke record on Friday night, missed out after going 23.28.
Dune Coetzee was the fastest of the three South African women in the 200m freestyle heats, going 2min 00.90sec. Georgia Nel went 2:02.76 and Hannah Robertson 2:03.35, but none of them made the final where the slowest qualifier touched in 1:59.16.
Kris Mihaylov, who won bronze in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay on Friday, was well off his best time in the 400m freestyle.
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