LONDON – There was hope that the men’s 4x100m medley relay team would advance to today’s final but the quartet were playing catch up after the first lap as Charl Crous – in his first Olympics – finished last in his backstroke leg.

Cameron van der Burgh, a gold medallist in the 100m breaststroke last week, brought the South Africans back into the race completing his 100m in 58.96.

Chad le Clos, another gold medal winner this week, made up some time with the butterfly but by the time that Leith Shankland, another debutant, entered the water at the final changeover the writing was on the wall.

The quartet finished with a time of 3:35.23, just over two-and-a-half seconds behind the American quartet who took a comfortable victory.

But the result wasn’t the end of the world for the four as they used this race to gain valuable experience before the next renewal of the Games in 2016.

“It was awesome for us to race again as a team,” said Van der Burgh afterwards.
“We have a lot of young guys coming up. They call me the old man of the team and it’s great for me to be in a mentorship role.

“I remember at my 2008 Olympics I didn’t do too well and look at me four years later. There’s a long way still to go for these guys and we’ll obviously work a lot in the next four years,” he added.

In the men’s 1 500m freestyle heats, Heerden Herman failed to progress after posting a time of 15:25.71 finishing sixth in his race. While Trudi Maree failed to get past the first round in the women’s 50m freestyle with a time of 25.78 to finish last in her heat.

Although there won’t be any South African participation in today's final swimming action it’s fair to say that Team SA’s performances have been more than a worthy contribution.