South Africa’s Ryk Neethling emerged as the star of the first leg of the Fina World Cup series in Durban on Sunday.
Neethling claimed two more golds on Sunday to take his total for the last three days to six golds out of six races contested. On Saturday he added the 50m butterfly (23,33) and the 200m freestyle (1:44,47) titles to his haul.
”It’s unbelievable. It’s been a very tough weekend for me,” he admitted afterwards.
”When I woke up this morning I just wanted to get through it so I’m very happy. This is good training for the Commonwealth Games where hopefully I will be swimming five or six events,” he added.
Ukrainian Oleg Lisagor was thrilled to finally get his hands on a gold medal, winning the 100m breaststroke in 59,17. The man from Kiev just missed out on the 50m gold after he dived in and his goggles filled with water.
”I couldn’t see anything and I missed the final touch. I was disappointed to miss the 50m so it’s nice to win gold.
”I am happy with my form at this stage of the season and am looking forward to the next World Cups. This is something to build on.”
Dutchwoman Marleen Veldhuis completed her clean sweep of the sprint freestyle titles, adding the 50m title to the 100m and 200m golds she had already won in Durban.
She recorded a comfortable victory in 24,07 seconds to finish ahead of World Cup series defending champion Anna-Karin Kammerling of Sweden.
”I’ve only had two or three months of hard training so I wasn’t expecting to achieve much here,” said Kammerling.
”It is really all building towards the Stockholm leg. I am going to try and put in some good times there and hopefully push towards defending my title.”
Neethling’s two golds and another two from South Africa’s George du Rand (200m backstroke in 1:53,92) and Suzaan van Biljon (200m breaststroke in 2:21,86) meant the host nation topped the medal table at the end of the three-day meet with nine golds.
Poland were a close second, however, after Aleksandra Urbanczyk won the 100m individual medley in 1:01,06 on Saturday to take their total to seven golds.
The action now moves to Sydney where the second leg of the World Cup takes place from November 19-20. – Sapa-AFP