International Meet in Ft Lauderdale, USA

Olympian Neil Versfeld continued with his bid for glory at the looming World Swimming Championships in Rome next month with a solid performance at the International Age Group Meet taking place at the Swimming Hall of Fame Complex in Ft Lauderdale, USA, this weekend.

 Versfeld joined teammates from Seals Swimming Club on tour in Florida for the popular meet and opened his debut at the meet with a sound 2:14,49 in the heats. The NCAA Champion over 200 yards breaststroke then went on to clock up his fastest unrested time in the event of 2:12,14.

“I did not feel too good on the second 50m as I warmed up a bit early, but I am really please with my second half and particularly the last 50m,” said Versfeld.

 Turning in 1:04,61 at the 100m mark, and then posting a second half 1:07,53 out on his own in the final to set a new meet record, but Versfeld was smiling as he also achieved this with a total of 9000m of training during the day.

 Before Versfeld took to the water, his clubmates had set the tone with some outstanding swims. John Ellis, now based at the Indian River Community College, also joined coach Wayne Riddin who has been a regular visitor at the meet since 1992. Ellis was in excellent form in the men’s 200m freestyle where he swam away from his opposition to win in 1:54,24. He followed this up with another encouraging gold medal performance in the 100m backstroke, clocking 1:00,87.

 Two juniors who gained a lot of experience swimming alongside Versfeld and Ellis from Seals were Mickey Olivier and Mark Hunter. Olivier raced to three gold medals to shock the locals – opening his tally with a fast 27,36sec for the 50m butterfly in the boys 13-14 years age group. He then clocked up another personal best in the 100m backstroke in 1:04,61 before completing a successful day in the 50m freestyle with a 25,34sec dash.

 Hunter swam into second place in the boys 13-14 years 200m breaststroke where, besides him being only 13 years old, he was the only swimmer in the field to wear a small conventional Speedo brief costume. Up against a field wearing the faster suits, Hunter smashed his personal best time before the meet by over seven seconds, clocking an amazing 2:35,54.