Day One of the 2015 All Africa Games kicked off today with some swift swimming from the South African contingent in Brazzaville, Congo.
Cameron Van der Burgh clinched the win in the men’s 100m breaststroke, clocking a time of 1:00.19 in tonight’s final. The time is a quite a ways off of the 58.59 Van der Burgh swam at the FINA World Championships for silver, but it would certainly speedy enough for the gold tonight. VDB swam over 2 seconds faster than the rest of the field, which included runner-up Yossif Elkamash who earned silver with his time of 1:02.42.
South African Myles Brown followed up his teammate’s win with a victory of his own in the men’s 200m freestyle race. Brown registered a winning time of 1:47.77, about a second slower than the 1:46.85 he scored at the FINA World Championships for 10th place out of semifinals. The mark tonight gives Brown a new meet record for his efforts.
For the women’s side, Jessica Cooper stood atop the podium in the 50m backstroke sprint race, touching in a time of 29.05 for the win. Cooper and Botswana’s Naomi Ruele were the only two competitors of the field to register a sub-30 time, as Ruele came away with the silver in 29.70’
A tight battle ensued in the women’s 100m freestyle, where Egypt’s Farida Osman snagged the victory in a time of 55.41 over South Africa’s Karin Prinsloo. Prinsloo’s mark of 55.69 earned silver, as the two were the only sub-56 swimmers of the race.
Competition continues tomorrow at 10am local time.
Time Cameron on FINA World Championship in Kazan – 58.59, not 58,49
Yeah he peaked at worlds this year but he’s the one guy I can see other than peaty dropping a 59 with ease
Not fair . He looks good with expression lines . I have to get botox .
I hope we will see van der burgh swim faster in the world cup, as he’s been the overall winner a couple of times, and he will want to prove a point after having a good champs, just being overshadowed by peaty.
Can’t help but feel Cameron put zero effort into that. I wonder if he’s saving for a bigger meet
He was peaked at Worlds. Can’t really expect anything close to what he swam there.