A South African quartet of world class sprinters have been invited to participate in the Raia Rapida format Four Nations meet in Brazil during September.

US aquatic website SwimSwam has reported that the South African contingent will comprise of the TuksSwimming trio of Roland Schoeman, Guilio Zorzi and Gerhard Zandberg while Pietermaritzburg Seal’s Brad Tandy completes the squad.

The sprint-based event features South Africa, the U.S.A., and Italy and hosts Brazil in a short, fast-paced, made-for-TV swimming event.

·       Each team enters four swimmers, one in each stroke.

·       Each swimmer gets to compete in a multi-round showdown, a 50-meter sprint in their stroke against the three competitors from the competing nations.

·       Each round, the last-place finisher is eliminated, until each stroke’s final ends with a one-on-one battle between the top two swimmers.

·       At the end of the meet, all four nations will contest a 200 Medley relay with national bragging rights on the line.

SwimSwam quoting a report emanating from Globo.com, stated that the South Africa’s squad is to be headed by the evergreen TuksSwimming stalwart Roland Schoeman, who despite being 35 years old remains amongst the world’s “best pure sprinters”.

Schoeman has made his career on a dominating start and great fast-twitch speed – he could compete at this meet in several strokes, but will take the role of butterflyer for South Africa.

South African breaststroke items will see TuksSwimming’s Guilio Zorzi caring the flag, a role in which he will relish, locking horns with some of the swiftest exponents of the stroke in the world. Zorzi a sprint specialist missed the recent FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia due to the SSA policy of only taking athletes that qualified for Olympic listed items. The Barcelona World Champs Bronze medalist and training partner of the indomniable Cameron van der Burgh, who also calls TuksSwimming home, will certainly hope to rattle the rankings in Brazil.

The towering and powerful Gerhard Zandburg, the 2007 World Champion in the 50m backstroke will line up for his pet event and is sure to embrace the opportunity to lock horns in a format that has seen him rise to the occasion at numerous meets on the international circuit. The TuksSwimming athlete has shown good explosive speed at a recent low key meet in Pretoria and is sure to give a good account of himself.

Brad Tandy has made a name for himself on the NCAA circuit and certainly has the ability to compliment the trio of World Championship medalists that comprise of his squad. Tandy who swims for Seals in Pietermaritzburg is currently attending university in Arizona and missed the National Championships in April due to varsity commitments. He too will be looking forward to the exposure, hype and camaraderie that come from participating in such events.

Participating athletes: