Brad Morgan
23 October 2007
Durban's Kings Park Aquatic Centre hosted the first leg of the 2007 Fina/Arena Swimming World Cup at the weekend. The event saw South Africa's best and the country's up-and-coming stars facing some of the sport's superstars.
For South Africa, Roland Schoeman and Gerhard Zandberg - both world champions - flew the flag with distinction, with Zandberg winning more medals than any other swimmer, taking away three golds among his overall haul of seven.
Susan van Biljon matched Zandberg, claiming three titles as she dominated the breaststroke to win the 50, 100, and 200 metres titles.
Schoeman, meanwhile, took victory in the 100 freestyle and 50 butterfly, as well as third place in the 50 breaststroke.
Top competition, top times
On the first day of competition, Lize-Mari Retief excelled in competition against Natalie Coughlin, a multiple gold medal winner at both World Championships and Olympic level, to
smash her South African record in the 100 metres butterfly.
Earlier this month, Retief had obliterated the previous SA record at the national short course championships in Pietermaritzburg and, up against one of the true superstars of swimming, she further improved upon her mark, clocking 57.30 seconds. Coughlin, meanwhile, showed her class in winning the race in 56.60 seconds.
Afterwards, Retief paid tribute to the American, saying she had helped pull her through to the fastest time of her life.
Mandy Loots claimed third position in 57.86, which was well within the previous record of 58.42 before it was shattered by Retief.
Loots also claimed victory in the 200 metres individual medley, ahead of national team members Van Biljon and Jessica Pengelly.
Disappointment
World Championships bronze medal winner Cameron van der Burgh touched first in the 50 metres breaststroke, but disappointment followed for the Pretoria swimmer
when he was disqualified, leaving Zandbergh the winner ahead of Donovan van der Merwe and Schoeman.
Van der Burgh said he was sure he had put both hands on the touch pad as he turned, but the officials felt otherwise. He later bounced back to capture gold in the 100 and 200 metres breaststroke.
Zandberg, in his favoured event, the backstroke, had to play second fiddle to the USA's Randal Bal in the 50 and 100 metres races. The American, who also won the 200, was timed in a world's best 23.79 in the 50, while Zandberg took second in an African record 24.16.
Bal finished the event as a triple gold medallist, along with Coughlin, Zandberg, Van Biljon and Sweden's Josefine Lillhage.
Shocked
One of Zandberg's golds came in the 50 freestyle in which he shocked Schoeman, edging out the sprint star by 0.01 seconds to win in 21.59.
His third win was achieved in the 100 metres individual medley in 53.93. In men's competition, it rated second only to Bal's 51.13 in the 100 backstroke on the Fina points' table.
The top performance, though, went to Coughlin in the women's 100 backstroke. Her winning time of 57.21 was the second best performance of all time, bettered only by her world record of 56.71.
The American superstar completed her gold medal haul in the 100 individual medley, clocking 1:00.59, to win ahead of SA's Mandy Loots, who also shone with a national record time of 1:01.46.
Swedish excellence
Sweden excelled in women's competition, finishing one-two-three in the 50 freestyle as Therese Alshammar won in 24.17, ahead of Anna-Karin Kammerling and Josefine Lillhage.
Alshammar also won the 50 butterfly in a world's best 25.64, while Lillhage won the 100, 200 and 400 freestyle.
Mandy Loots set a South African record as she won the 200 butterfly in 2:07.14, while Kathryn Meaklim bettered the SA mark in the 400 individual medley, but had to settle for second behind Hungary’s Zsuzanna Jakabos.
Meaklim also won gold and set a new continental record when she won the 800 freestyle in 8:29.23. Melissa Corfe also bettered the previous mark, finishing in 8:29.31.
Records
In total, 10 meet records fell and four African records were established.
South Africa finished with 16 wins, while the USA picked up six victories, Sweden five, Germany four, and one each for Brazil, Hungary, and Australia. France, Russia and Slovakia also recorded medal winning performances.
Swimming South Africa's head coach Dirk Lange expressed his satisfaction with the event, saying it is important that the country's top swimmers get the chance to compete in as many international events as possible, ahead of the Beijing Olympics, which take place in less than a year's time.
He said the performances of among others, Retief, Loots, and Zandberg would have boosted their confidence markedly.
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