Roland Schoeman, who spearheaded the relay team to a world-record gold at the Athens Olympics, was in super mode with a South African short-course record of 47,12 seconds in the 100m freestyle at the Fina World Cup in Durban on Friday night.
”Swimming’s got to be better than rugby and cricket for South Africans right now,” grinned Schoeman after two golds and a bronze on the first of three nights of the Fina showpiece. ”South Africans are winning in swimming.”
Schoeman, with barely 10 minutes’ recovery after winning the 50m butterfly, surged to victory from a quicksilver start to edge out former record-holder Ryk Neethling and Darian Townsend, who were also part of the golden 4x100m freestyle relay team in Athens.
Neethling put in a mighty challenge on the final lap, but his power couldn’t match Schoeman’s speed and he claimed silver in 47,49 seconds.
Townsend, who was ”thrilled to be back in front of his home crowd” after arriving from his university in Florida, United States, on Thursday, claimed bronze in 49,30 seconds.
”I didn’t know what to expect,” said Schoeman. ”It’s different training since the Olympics and my form was quite a surprise. But beating the ‘Old Man’ [27-year-old Neethling] and his record on his home ground was paramount. He wasn’t happy — just as well we are great buddies.”
Schoeman cut under Neethling’s 100m freestyle record of 47,45 seconds shortly after enjoying the distinction of beating world record-holder Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine into third with his 50m butterfly victory in 27,99 seconds.
And he was smiling broadly because he chalked up his opening $1Â 500 first prize of the event. Lisogor swam 27,34 seconds behind Brenton Rickard of Australia (27,33).
Schoeman was $3Â 750 up after the first of three days of World Cup action after winning bronze in the 50m backstroke in 25,33 seconds, well in the wake of world long-course champion German Thomas Rupprath (23,68) and Russian Arkady Vyatchanin (24,63).
The cheers had hardly died down for the on-form trio when Neethling was back in the blocks for the 100m individual medley, and he stunned by beating his South African record of 53,95 seconds with a superb 53,13 ahead of Lisogor (54,81), and Rickard (55,11).
”It’s been a long night,” said Neethling, who also won silver in the 400m freestyle in the first event of the evening. ”This proves that my fitness is pretty good for the rest of the World Cup events I’ll be swimming. It seems like our victory in Athens was the beginning of something.”
Neethling set off fast from the start of the 400m freestyle, with Russian Yuri Prilukov, winner of the short-course title in Indianapolis last month, allowing the big South African to set the pace before forging ahead by a head after halfway.
Neethling put in a strong challenge over the final two lengths for a nail-biting finish, but his 3:43,79 wasn’t enough to eclipse the Russian, who won in 3:43,57.
Mandy Loots bounced back from missing selection to the Athens Olympics with two South African records.
She swam 4:39,61 for third in the 400m individual medley and 26,89 seconds for bronze in the 50m butterfly, both new national marks.
”Funny how things turn out,” said Loots ”I had to stay at home and work hard at my swimming and look what’s happened. Maybe I needed my butt kicked a bit. I’m still on strength training in my build-up to the nationals [next March] for selection for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne a year later.”
Loots swam at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics and is swimming three medley and three butterfly races at the showpiece.
Tammy Laubscher won the 100m breaststroke (1:09,59) and Melissa Corfe won the 200m backstroke in 2:09,22 to keep the South African flag flying high before a lively crowd. — Sapa