Maree Stars in Perth

London Olympic sprinter Trudi Maree was one of the stars for Team South Africa on the opening day of the recent BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series, at the Challenge Stadium in Perth, Australia, winning bronze in the women’s 50m butterfly in a time of 27.22, behind China’s Lu Ying and Australian Alicia Coutts.

Maree was back in action on day two as Team SA’s women’s relay teams took advantage of some ill-discipline from their rivals to take gold in the 4x100m medley relay, and silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay – both times being elevated from third after their rivals were disqualified.

In the women’s 4x100m medley relay, the team of Nathania van Niekerk (1:04.32), Tara-Lynn Nicholas (1:13.06), Marne Erasmus (1:00.55) and Maree (55.87) were awarded the race in 4:13.80 when Australia and China were disqualified – the Aussies for a break in the breaststroke to butterfly changeover and China for a breach of the 15m mark in the backstroke leg.

In the 4x100m freestyle they were handed a similar fortune when second-placed China were disqualified for an early changeover.

This time the squad of Maree, Lehesta Kemp, Kyna Pereira and Jessica Pengelly combined for a time of 3:49.47 behind the Australian Olympic champions of Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie and Melanie Schlanger – with Bronte Campbell substituting for their victorious 4x100m London teammate Alicia Coutts.

Maree and East London high school student Marne Erasmus joined the medal party too, winning bronze in the 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle respectively.

Erasmus showed her promise by clocking 1:00.23 to finish with bronze in the 100m butterfly, behind the Olympic silver and bronze medallists, Ying Lu (58.57) and Alicia Coutts (58.66).

It was a busy day for Maree, who collected a gold, a silver and an individual bronze for her 50m freestyle swim of 25.50 behind the Campbell sisters of Australia.

Maree swam at Arizona State University in recent years, but has now returned to South Africa, and plans to begin studying at Stellenbosch University this year.

Overall the meet was a successful one for Team South Africa. Team SA national head coach Graham Hill said he was happy with how the young South Africans had performed. “This is a very young and inexperienced team we have brought to Perth, and they are racing against some of the best swimmers in the world,” Hill said.

“I think they handled themselves very well and they will all learn a lot from this experience. Our goal is to continue to improve right up until the World Championships in Barcelona later in the year, and our big aim is the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.”