Friday, 19th October 2007 at 2:12 pm

Roland Schoeman lights up World Cup

Feverpitcher can very proudly report in live from the World Cup; unfortuantely, it’s the Swimming World Cup in Durban, rather than the rugby in Paris. The first leg of FINA’s traipse across the globe is underway, and good as the first morning’s heats looked on Friday, the King’s Park pool probably lacked a little of the electricity currently flowing through the French capital.

The swimming is also lacking most of the big names - the likes of Michael Phelps aren’t around, and South African stars like Ryk Neethling (currently in Paris for the final), Lyndon Ferns and Darian Townsend haven’t made the trip either. But one South African star did hit the water on Friday morning: after much will he, won’t he debate - and a swirl of rumours concerning his Swimming South Africa Code of Conduct, and whether or not he’d sign it - Roland Schoeman duly appeared at the pool, comfortably winning the three heats he took part in.

Schoeman will be one of the big drawcards on Friday night, for the first of the finals; with Gerhard Zandberg and Jessica Pengelly amongst South Africans in form, there’s certain to be a home presence on several medal podiums. American Natalie Coghlan and Australian Sophie Eddington add some big name international flair to the two days in Durban; it might not quite be Paris this week, but on the evidence of the first morning, South African swimming appears in rude health, with the next generation of Schoemans and Neethlings raring to go.