SA team swimming in medals

After three days of competition, the South African swimming team has no intention of slowing down as the medals continued to pour in at the XII CANA African Swimming Championships at the Stadium Swimming Pool in Bloemfontein yesterday. Port Elizabeth’s Kaylene Corbette (17) led the South African charge, winning the 50m breaststroke final and breaking the 2008 Championship record of 32.64, when she touched the wall in a golden time of 32.58. Teammate Hanim Abrahams came a close second in 33.08 and Egypt’s Mai Atef third in 33.44. In the 400m freestyle, it was Caitlin Kat who came out tops in 4:24.74. South Africa’s Jessica Whelan was in the lead for the first three laps, but Kat’s sprint in the last 200m was too strong and Whelan finished with bronze in 4:29.68, while Algeria’s Souad Nefissa Cherouna was second in 4:26.44. Mariella Venter was quick off the block in the 100m backstroke, easily winning in 1:02.44, ahead of Seychelles’ Alexus Laird in 1:05.53 and Egypt’s Ingy Abouzaid in 1:06.50. Martin Binedell and Neil Fair were too quick for Egypt’s Ahmed Hamdy, walking away with the gold and silver in the 200m backstroke in 2:03.43 and 2:04.33, respectively, to Hamdy’s bronze time of 2:07.45. In the 50m butterfly, Douglas Erasmus added another gold medal to the host nation’s tally in 24.33, while Alard Basson claimed the bronze in 24.83 and Egypt’s Hassan Yasser the silver in 24.64. Algeria grabbed their second gold of the competition in the 100m freestyle, with Oussama Sahnoune winning in a new Championship record time of 49.60 ahead of Mzansi’s Calvyn Justus in 50.21 and Egypt’s Mohamed Samy in 50.29. The 4x100m freestyle women’s relay saw Algeria take home the gold in 4:00.92 ahead of Egypt in 4:06.62, while the South African team were disqualified due to a false start. In the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, Myles Brown, Josh Dannhauser, Brent Szurdoki and Calvyn Justus claimed the gold in 7:36.80 ahead of Egypt in 7:38.89 and Morocco in 8:10.37.