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Day 3 honours belong to Brown

Durban - The South African National Championships in Durban is turning out to be a memorable one for Myles Brown as he has two world qualification times behind his name after three days at the King's Park Swimming Pool.

Brown crept up on Olympic gold medallist Chad le Clos in the men's 200m freestyle to post a qualifying time of 1:47.44 with Le Clos also dipping below the standard for the FINA World Long Course Championships in a time of 1:47.89.

Le Clos already met the mark in this event in Tuesday's semi-final while Brown also qualified for the 400m freestyle on Monday.

"It’s always nice to get a win and although it’s not a great time for world rankings but I really wanted to get the qualifying time tonight.

"Chad is really a tough competitor to beat," Brown said after beating his training partner.

"I am really happy with the win tonight.

"I will see how fit I am to do the 800m free tomorrow (Thursday), but I am excited to race the 4x100m relay as well."

Brown said he was satisfied with his performances in the pool as he had achieved qualifying times in the 400m and the 200m free which was his main goal ahead of the championships.

Le Clos said he was disappointed with his time as he hoped to have gone at least two seconds faster than he did on Wednesday evening.

"I am obviously very disappointed with my time, I wanted to go faster," Le Clos said.

"I really thought I would do 1:45.00, I have had really good training before the championships, I feel I am in my best shape.

"I have to swim this time at Mare Nostrum. I know I have a lot of work to do."

Sebastien Rousseau also earned his place for the World Championships in the semi-finals of the 200m butterfly along with Le Clos.

The United States-based swimmer posted a time of 1:56.40 with Le Cos posting a time of 1:57.39.

"The plan was to just swim a good time as the 200m fly is really important race to me," Rousseau said.

"I think for the relay Chad, Myles and myself have a good chance to challenge at the Olympics - it's a pity Dylan Bosch isn't competing here."

In the100m backstroke Ricky Ellis was crowned champion posting a time of 55.61 seconds to beat Neil de Villiers (55.70) in second place and Gerhard Zandberg in third place with 55.77 seconds.

Meanwhile, Mariella Venter claimed the women's 100m backstroke title with a time of 1:02.03, while Nathania van Niekerk came second with 1:02.72 and Jessica Ashley-Cooper third in 1:03.09.

Tatjana Schoenmaker beat Tara Nicholas to the wall in the women's 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:08.85. Nicholas clocked a time of 1:09.04 with Franko Jonker taking third place in 1:09.98.

Only athletes registered with and in good standing with SSA will be considered for selection for the world championships.

SSA has made it clear that only swimmers who participate at the SSA National Swimming Championships and attain Qualification Time Standards at the trials will be considered for selection.

Day 4 morning heats start at 09:30 and finals at 18:00.

World Championships qualifiers:

Myles Brown - 200m & 400m freestyle
Cameron van der Burgh - 100m butterfly
Chad le Clos - 200m freestyle
Sebastien Rousseau - 200m butterfly

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