It was a near perfect day for South African swimmers on the fourth day of the African Swimming Championships in Bloemfontein as the team missed out on gold in only one event on Thursday.
The country won five gold medals in total as four swimmers won their second titles of the seven-day championships.
Ayrton Sweeney added the 200m breaststroke gold to the 400m Individual Medley title he won on Monday posting a time of 2:16.96.
Alaric Basson, who won the 100m breaststroke on the first day of the gala, claimed second place in a time of 2:20.82 with Egypt’s Hassan Yasser rounding off the podium with 2:21.17.
Sweeney missed out on a spot at the Rio Games after he represented South Africa at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia last year.
An elbow injury complicated his bid for Olympic selection but was bullish about making his comeback at next year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
“We’ve got world championships next year but we also have Commonwealth Games trials in December,” Sweeney said.
“I guess we are always racing hard but it would be really nice to qualify for worlds because I missed out on Olympics this year which was quite a disappointment but I am back.”
Rio Olympian Myles Brown also earned his second title of the continental showpiece when he won his specialist 400m event in a time of 3:54.80.
The national record holder out-touched Egypt’s Marwan Elamrawy in second place with 3:56.45 while Lounis Khendriche of Algeria had to be content with third clocking 4:02.16.
South Africa’s young female duo of Kaylene Corbett and Hanim Abrahams continued their dominance in the breaststroke.
In a repeat of Tuesday’s 50m breaststroke Corbett and Abrahams occupied the top two steps of the podium in the 100-metre event.
Corbett added the 100m breaststroke continental title touching first in a time of 1:11.81 with the 14-year-old Hanim Abrahams bagging the silver in 1:12.35 with Mai Atef of Egypt taking third in 1:12.49.
Nathania van Niekerk won her second gold of the gala hitting the wall first in the women’s 100m butterfly in a time of 1:02.61.
She finished ahead of Egypt’s Mariam Sakr and Rowaida Hesham in second and third place clocking 1:03.11 and 1:03.23 respectively.
Olympic Open Water swimmer Michelle Weber earned the country’s final individual medal of the day when she finished in third place in the women’s 800m with a time of 9:15.89.
Algeria’s Souad Nefissa Cherouati won the race in a time of 9:10.29 with Egyptian swimmer Reem Kassem following behind her in 9:13.85.
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