OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday, 10.30pm.
COMMONWEALTH silver medallist Brendon Dedekind held out against strong-finishing Roland Schoeman to win the men’s 100m freestyle Monday, posting his fourth African record of the Telkom SA short course championships in Cape Town.
Deaf Durbanite Terence Parkin annihilated his personal best time to set a continental mark in the 200m breaststroke while other African records went to double Olympic champion Penny Heyns (100m breaststroke), Theo Verster (200m individual medley), Andre Bradley (50m butterfly) and Chad Carvin (1500m freestyle).
Dedekind, who on Saturday became the first man in Africa to break the 22-second barrier for the 50m sprint, repeated the feat in the 100m as he dipped below 49 seconds for a 48,93. Schoeman touched just behind him in 49,05.
Dedekind thus claimed the only men’s swimming short course continental record that was not held by a South African. The previous mark of 49,04 — equalled by Schoeman in the semifinal — was held by Egyptian Salim Iles.
“I was really happy to go 48,” said Dedekind, who also took the 100m IM and 50m breaststroke records. “When I race, I don’t think of records or times, I just focus on the race at hand. Roland’s got a lot of talent. He’s a good competitor and he’s got what it takes. Hopefully he can build on this and Commonwealth.”
Julia Russell took her third title of the gala when she came first in the 200m individual medley in 2:16,00. But in the very next race, she had to settle for third place behind double Olympic champion Penny Heyns (1:07,74) and 15-year-old Sarah Poewe (1:09,16) in the 100m breaststroke.
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