Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe won two swimming gold medals on Saturday at the All Africa Games and was denied a silver when her team were disqualified from the 4x100m relay.
Coventry won the 100m backstroke by setting a new All Africa Games record of one minute, 1,28 seconds. She then won the 800m freestyle in 8:43,89, another games record.
Coventry went straight back in the pool to swim the last leg of the freestyle relay for Zimbabwe in the final race of the day. She advanced from fifth place to second, only to see her team disqualified for a false start on the third leg.
South Africa won the relay in 3:56,05, with Egypt in second and Tunisia third.
”It’s been a great competition so far. The pool’s great, the crowd is very loud, I have the whole Zimbabwean team upstairs screaming and yelling for me, so that always helps,” said Coventry, who also won the 400m medley on Wednesday.
In men’s swimming, South Africa claimed two more gold medals, bringing the team’s total haul of swimming golds to 12 over the first three days of the Games. Cameron van der Burgh won the 50m breaststroke and George du Rand claimed a comfortable victory in the 200m backstroke.
”I knew I was going to swim pretty fast; I’ve just come back from Europe and I’ve been swimming a solid time,” said Van der Burgh, who also won the 100m breaststroke on Wednesday. ”Knowing that you’re swimming for your country, you always give it your all and to do as well as I’ve done so far, I’m extremely happy.”
Algeria won gold and silver in the men’s 100m freestyle, with Salim Iles setting a new Games record with 49,38. Nabil Kebbab was second and Kenyan Jason Dunford third.
In other events, South Africa’s Daryl Impey won the 150km cycling road race in 3:48:51, ahead of Ertitrea’s Fricalsi Oebasay and Rafaa Chetoui of Tunisia.
In judo, Algeria won three gold medals and one bronze, bringing the host nation’s total medal count in the sport to 16.
The All Africa Games run until July 23. About 8 000 athletes are competing in 27 sports. — Sapa-AP