Swimming in the heats of the men’s 400m IM, Ayrton Sweeney posted the 19th-fastest time (4:20.32), a full 8.05 behind the quickest time posted by Japan’s Daiya Seto (4:12.27).

Only the top eight fastest times reached the final.

In the women’s 400m IM that followed, Rebecca Meder disappointed with the 22nd-fastest time (4:53.99), a yawning 18.59 behind the quickest time recorded by Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu (4:35.40).

Only 26 swimmers contested the women’s heats and once again only the top eight reached Sunday’s final.

The 4x100m medley relays resulted in shockingly poor performances from both the SA men’s and women’s quartets.

In their heat, the men’s first-choice line-up of Chris Reid (backstroke), Michael Houlie (breaststroke), Chad le Clos (butterfly) and Ryan Coetzee (freestyle) finished stone last and when all was said and done, their time of 3:38.18 was the 23rd-fastest time out of the 27 teams who competed.

The SA quartet were embarrassingly well beaten by swimming minnows like Ireland, Israel and Kazakhstan – among many others.

The SA women’s foursome of Mariella Venter (backstroke), Tatjana Schoenmaker (breaststroke), Tayla Lovemore (butterfly) and Emma Chelius (freestyle) fared little better in finishing 17th in the 21-strong field.

Team SA will have a single entrant in Sunday’s championship-concluding finals when Zane Waddell takes to the water in the men’s 50m backstroke at 13:02 SA time. DM