Neethling: No plans to retire

2008-06-08 18:53

Johannesburg - South African swimming sensation Ryk Neethling has revealed he has no plans to retire after the Olympics and sent out a warning to his rivals that South Africa was looking for more gold at the games.

Neethling, who was one of the golden foursome who won the 4x100m freestyle title in Athens in world record time, is preparing for Beijing and said that he still had a few surprises up his sleeve.

Neethling was speaking to Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Sondag.

"The Gold medal that we won in Athens was a lot of hard work that we put in. My message to people in SA is that we are working just as hard to achieve the same success this time around," Neethling told Sondag.

"The top five swimmers for the 4x100m are positive that we can be successful in Beijing" Neethling said referring to himself and teammates

Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Gideon Louw and Darian Townsend.

Four of the five recently beat the Australian record at a swim meet in their preparations for the Olympics.

Neethling added that he was looking for a few individual marks at the Games as well.

"I said after the games in Athens that I desperately wanted to win a medal in an individual event. This time, I'm gong to try very hard to win in the 100 metres freestyle."

- SAPA