DURBAN, South Africa (AFP) - Roland Schoeman gave the South African home crowd plenty to celebrate on the opening night of the first leg of the FINA World Cup.
The triple Olympic medallist claimed two golds and a bronze. But it was his performance in the 100m freestyle that produced the most excitement as three of South Africa`s four Olympic 4x100m freestyle relay gold medallists claimed a clean sweep of the medals.
Schoeman led the way with a new African record of 47.12 while Ryk Neethling finished second in 47.49 and Darian Townsend third in 49.30.
"Before the race we said we can go one, two, three here," said Schoeman afterwards. "I think it just shows the calibre of swimming we have in South African swimming at the moment and that`s great."
Meanwhile, Germany`s Thomas Rupprath and American Sara McLarty were the only other competitors to win double gold last night. The 27-year-old who claimed Olympic silver with his German teammates in Athens, won the 200m butterfly in 1:52.82 and then took the 50m backstroke in a time of 23.68.
"I am swimming in the German championships next week so I`m happy to be in such good shape and swimming fast," said a thrilled Rupprath.
The German had withdrawn from the 100m individual medley (an event in which he holds the short course world record) to concentrate on the backstroke event. In his absence South Africa`s Neethling claimed the 100m IM title in an African record time of 53.13 a performance which has placed him on top of the points table in the World Cup series so far.
McLarty took her golds in the 400m individual medley (4:35.57) and the 800m freestyle (8:27.46).
And it was a good night for the Swedish woman with Josefin Lillhage winning the 100m freestyle in 54.48 and world record-holder Anna-Karin Kammerling the 50m butterfly in 26.36.
11/19/2004 - 20:37 GMT - AFP