DURBAN, South Africa, April 4. THE sixth day of swimming at the South African Championships held in Durban featured a pair of African records falling.
Lize-Mari Retief held off Mandy Loots in the women's 100 fly en route to an African record time of 58.68. The time nipped Retief's 58.70 set yesterday. Loots wound up second in 59.30.
Melissa Corfe added the 200 free African standard to her record in the 400 free set three days ago. Corfe stopped the clock in 1:59.76 to nip the 1:59.87 set by Helen Muller in 2002.
Meanwhile, Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns and Ryk Neethling put on a show in the semifinal of the men's 100 free as Schoeman touched in 48.41 with Ferns posting a 48.82, while Neethling hit the wall in 49.23 to equal the Olympic qualifying mark.
Suzaan van Biljon snatched the women's 200 breast title in a time of 2:26.60, while Jessica Liss, 12, barely missed an Olympic berth with a time to take second.
Terence Parkin lost another South African record, this time when Darian Townsend crushed the men's 200 IM mark of 2:01.95 with a 2:01.05 during semis of the event. Townsend nearly claimed the African record from Ous Mellouli, who set a 2:01.00 in 2005.
Williams Diering and Neil Versfeld went 1-2 in the men's 200 breast as Diering won in 2:12.17 with Versfeld placing second in 2:12.33. Diering had broken the national record with a 2:11.88 during semis.
Jessica Pengelly led the women's 200 IM semifinal round with a time of 2:15.22, while Loots (2:16.51) and Kathryn Meaklim (2:18.07) will chase her.
Other winners included Herman Heerden in the men's 800 free (8:11.66), Gerhard Zandberg in the men's 50 back (25.13) and Charl van Zyl in the women's 50 back (29.82).
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