Roland Schoeman set the world’s fastest 100m freestyle this year when he powered to victory in the final at the Telkom national swimming championships in Durban on Tuesday night.
The Northern Titans swimmer, based at university in Tucson, Arizona, swam the race of his life to break his African record in 48,20 seconds.
This was a superb effort — only 0,36 seconds off the world record set by Pieter van den Hoogenband in 2000 — considering that Schoeman was off top form as he was suffering from a sinus problem.
Sending out a strong pre-Olympic message to world powerhouses Van den Hoogenband, Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps, Schoeman beat defending champion Ryk Neethling, who lost the title for the first time in five years. Neethling claimed silver in 49,21 seconds.
The final was a huge disappointment for Neethling who was the fastest semifinalist in a South African record 48,76 seconds on Monday night, which rates as the second-fastest on the Fina world rankings for 2004.
”I was very surprised about that. I was ecstatic at the finish,” said Schoeman, who sounded all blocked up. ”I’m a bit surprised at the fast time, really, because I’m on antibiotics for a bit of fever right now. It’s not flu or anything, more a sinus problem.
”I got sick two days ago and haven’t slept since. I was struggling in the warm-ups and just focused on my rhythm in the race. My legs took strain in the last 30m, but I just hung in there.”
Schoeman went on to swim an African, South African and Commonwealth record 21,98 seconds in the first leg of the 4x50m freestyle relay as he spearheaded Northern Titans to the gold medal in 1:36,00.
Neethling, however, would have liked to have offered a stronger challenge.
”It’s a bitter dissappointment in view of my time last night,” said Neethling. ”I swallowed a lot of water diving in at the start, which set me back. But that’s no excuse.”
Gerhard Zandberg broke his best of 55,64 seconds with 55,44 seconds for the Africa record and became the fourth Olympic qualifier at the championships for the 100m backstroke.
Melissa Corfe celebrated her long-distance double with the 1 500m title by beating her Africa record in 16:52,00. This, after claiming the 800m title ahead of Natalie du Toit on Sunday night.
Du Toit, the swimmer who lost her lower left leg in a scooter accident before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, once again received an ovation with her bronze 1 500m medal in 17:17,43 behind WP’s Wendy Trott who swan 17:11,72.
Terence Parkin dominated after the first length to retain his 200m individual medley title in 2:04,38 — almost three seconds off his South African record — from Theo Verster (2:05,75).
Lauren Roets of CGA won the women’s 100m freestyle in 56,60 ahead of Renate du Plessis (58,02) and Rene Mouton (58,25). In the 200m individual medley Tamaryn Laubscher (NT) claimed the gold in 2:20,82 from Erna Wedemeyer (NT) in 2:21. — Sapa