Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Roland Schoeman and Darian Townsend kept the gold medals coming the way of the South African team as they each made two trips to the podium on the opening day of the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup in Singapore on Saturday.
Schoeman repeated the surprise he caused in the opening leg of the short course series in Durban last month, by beating world record-holder and national team-mate Cameron van der Burgh, for the main honours in the 50 metres breaststroke.
Schoeman finished in 25.58, with Van der Burgh placing second in 25.76.
In the 50 metres freestyle, Schoeman took silver in 22.27, while Townsend claimed gold in the 100 metres individual medley (52.11) and silver in the 100 metres freestyle (46.63).
Neil Versfeld, who finished fifth in the 50 metres breaststroke, collected the silver medal in the 200 metres breaststroke in 2:02.68 just outside his meet record mark of 2:02.56, while Terence Parkin finished sixth with 2:10.76.
Kathryn Meaklim was in record-breaking form, in taking silver in the 800 metres freestyle in 8:25.47 inside her previous African mark of 8:25.53, before ending second in the 200 metres individual medley.
Mandy Loots set a national record time of 2:05.01 and claimed the silver medal in the 200 metres backstroke, while Jessica Ashley-Cooper finished forth in 2:07.23.
Durbanite Jay Cee Thomson - who joined the SA team for the final stopover of the five-leg FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup - went on to win bronze in the 400 metres individual medley (4:06.97) and 400 metres freestyle (3:41.09) respectively.
Another KwaZulu-Natal swimmer, Wesley Gilchrist finished fourth in the 200 metres butterfly in 1:55.74, while Terence Parkin ended forth in the 400 metres individual medley in a time of 4:13.18.
