While all the South African attention in the pool has been on Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, Brad Tandy put his name up in lights by qualifying for the 50m freestyle final on Friday morning.
The 25-year-old Tandy, who hails from Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal and is studying towards a Management Information Systems degree at the University of Arizona in the US (he already has an Associate in Arts degree from the Indian River State College in Florida), emulated South African legend Roland Schoeman to reach a 50m freestyle final.
Schoeman grabbed a bronze medal in the event at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and ended seventh in the final in Beijing four years later, and sixth at the 2012 London Olympics. He just missed out on qualifying for a fifth consecutive Olympics after ending third in the South African national championships in April.
But Tandy won that event and breezed through his heats in Rio, so the big test came in the semi-finals on Friday morning SA time. Known for his explosive starts out of the blocks, Tandy didn’t disappoint as he finished third in 21.80 – a new personal best – behind defending champion Florent Manoudou, who won in a blistering time of 21.32.
Tandy would’ve endured an anxious wait to see what happened in the second semi-final, where there was a dead-heat between Ukraine’s Andriy Hovorov and American Anthony Ervin in 21.46.
However, Tandy’s time of 21.80 was just enough for him to advance as the eighth fastest swimmer, and now he can prepare for an historic first ever Olympic final, which takes place at 3.44am SA time on Saturday morning.
It is a dream come true for Tandy, as he had narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics.
@ashfakmohamed
Independent Media