Townsend continues fine form

Johannesburg - South Africa's Darian Townsend won a gold and a bronze medal at the Berlin leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup on Sunday.

It takes his medal tally to four after bagging two bronze medals on Saturday.

Townsend, who has consistently been among the top swimmers in the short course series, came third in the men's 200m freestyle race and finished the day with a gold medal in the 200m individual medley.

In the eight-lap freestyle race France's Yannick Agnel raced to victory in one minute, 42.10 (1:42.10) with Paul Biedermann of Germany beating Townsend for second place in 1:42.71.

The 28-year-old Townsend touched shortly after the German, posting a time of 1:42.79.

Later, in the 200m individual medley, the South African finished strongly in the last few metres of the freestyle leg to wrest first place from Hungary's Laszlo Cseh.

Going into the last lap, Townsend was placed third with Cseh and Japan's Daiya Seto leading the race.

Townsend, however, showed his strength in the freestyle, winning the race in 1:53.44, 0.15 seconds ahead of Cseh.

Seto finished third in 1:53.84.

Townsend's two third-place finishes on Saturday came in the 100m freestyle and 100m individual medley.

Neil Versfeld, the only other South African in the field, was not able to emulate his fellow countryman and finished fifth in the men's 100m breaststroke final in 58.95 seconds.

The World Cup moves to Beijing and will take place on November 2 and 3.