South Africa’s Lize-Mari Retief broke the All-African Games record — twice — in the women’s 50m butterfly on Monday as her nation’s swim team dominated the pool for a second day, winning five golds to go with the four it won a day earlier.
Retief lowered the record in the sprint to 27,94 seconds in the preliminary heat, then broke that in the final with a mark of 27,56 seconds.
Freestyle star Lauren Roets, who had already won two golds for South Africa, added the 200m freestyle gold to her collection — and declared herself ready to win three more.
”The 200m was always going to be my hardest race, and now that it’s behind me, I can concentrate on trying to achieve my goal,” Roets said.
In men’s swimming, Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli clipped more than five seconds off the All-African record to take the 400m individual medley in 4 minutes and 29,68 seconds.
In soccer action on Monday, Nigeria’s Idelette Guadem scored the only goal to lead her squad to a 1-0 victory over Cameroon.
Zimbabwe scored two games in each half to claim a decisive 4-0 victory over Ethiopia in Monday’s other women’s soccer match.
Egypt’s Nourhan Ahmed Saad dominated the apparatus finals in women’s gymnastics, taking gold on the beam and on the floor. She also took silver in the vault and bronze on the uneven bars.
South Africa’s all-around individual winner Kerry Joyce won another gold on the uneven bars and all-around bronze medallist Zandre Labuschagne of South Africa triumphed in the vault.
In the men’s individual gymnastics competition, Mohammed Serour of Egypt took gold on the floor, with Wajdi Bouallegue of Tunisia and Julian Witbooi of South Africa winning silver and bronze respectively.
Ferdjani Sid-Ali of Algeria won the pommel horse final with a superb score of 9,587, and South Africa’s Athol Myhill won gold on the rings. — Sapa-AP