The final evening of the Telkom South African short course championships at the Kings Park Pool in Durban once again played out before a near capacity crowd and was another humdinger affair.

Once again it was the diminutive Gauteng flyer Mandy Loots who established a new African and South African record in the 100m butterfly when she posted a 59.02 to shave .37 seconds off her mark she established during the semi-finals on Saturday night. The performance of the night however went to Theo Verster (Pietermaritzburg Seals) who smashed Terence Parkins 200m individual medley mark in a clinical display when he claimed victory in 1:56.94 slicing .93 seconds off the existing mark set in 2000. Both swimmers are coached by Dean Price.

The evening's proceedings got underway with the men's 100m freestyle. Brendon Dedekind had withdrawn, however a keenly contested affair was anticipated. Roland Schoeman (PAC) was out of the blocks in a flash with Swedish ace Lars Frolander and Nick Folker (Pietermaritzburg Seals in close attendance. At the halfway point both Frolander and Folker had closed the gap significantly and coming off the wall it was Frolander who took the race by the scruff of the neck and surged into the lead. The battle was now on. The Swede showed maximum aggression going into the last lap and the writing was on the wall as he surged to victory in 47.66. Schoeman claimed the silver in 48.66 while Folker led the chasing pack in on 49.24 with the promising Lyndon Ferns (Pietersburg) claiming fourth place (49.91) ahead of Stephen Ackermann (Mr. Price Seagulls) (49.98).

The woman's 200m individual medley followed. Sara Nordenstam from Sweden was out in a flash and was in control from the outset. Both Marizanne Grundlingh (Vineyard) and Candice Little (Mustangs) closed the gap significantly during the backstroke leg, but the Swede showed her versatility as she powered away from her rivals over the breaststroke leg to set up an emphatic victory in 2:13.04. Grundlingh claimed the silver in 2:17.00 while Little had to settle for bronze in 2:18.27.

Next up was the ladies 100m breaststroke. Much has been expected from local lass Sarah Poewe (Vineyard) who has yet to claim a gold medal at these championships and this event was to be no exception. Out of the blocks in a flash Poewe held a slight advantage coming off the first turn, but Sweden's Emma Igelstrom had other ideas and hunted the blonde Capetonian down to seize the moment coming off the second turn. Despite the close attentions of Poewe, Igelstrom did enough to deny her victory and claimed the honors in 1:06.61. Poewe posted a 1:06.81 while her club mate Ziada Jardine claimed the silver in 1:10.69.

The long awaited showdown between stalwart Simon Thirsk (Mr. Price Seagulls) and the up and coming Gerhard Zandberg (PAC) unfortunately did not live up to expectations with the latter never really being challenged. Zandberg capitalized on a superb start to claim the honors in convincing style in a time of 54.53 while Thirsk (55.27) did well to hold off Swede Jens Petersson (55.39) and secure the silver.

The 100m butterfly saw Anna-Karin Kammerling from Sweden out like a flash but compatriot Johanna Sjoberg and Mandy Loots hunted her down. Going into the last 50 Loots appeared to be handily place to cause an upset, however Swedish stalwart pulled out all the stops to claim victory in 58.87, the fastest time ever on the African continent while Loots finished in 59.02. Kammerling claimed bronze in 1:00.95 while the promising 15 year-old Lize-Marie Retief did well to take fourth place in 1:01.79. Retief is also coached by Dean Price of Dolphins.

The 200m breaststroke saw Terence Parkin (Mr. Price Seagulls) dominate proceedings from the outset and the indomnible Durbanite was never challenged. Demonstrating a powerful controlled stroke, Parkin built a convincing lead to claim victory in 2:08.19 just a tad off his continental mark of 2:07.91. Second place and silver went to Martin Gustafsson from Sweden in a time of 2:12.07 while Michael du Toit from Petersburg claimed the bronze in 2:15.34.

Sarah Price from Great Britain posted a fine 2:06.94, yet another fastest time ever on the African continent, when she showed a clean set of heels in the ladies 200m backstroke. Local ace Charlene Wittstock (Mr. Price Seagulls) claimed the silver when she recorded a 2:10.26 while club-mate and promising junior Melissa Corfe won the bronze in 2:12.80 ahead of Romina Armellini (Wanderers) who posted a time of 2:12.91.

The men's 200m individual medley saw Theo Verster post the fastest time in the world of the current season when he turned in a world-class performance in claiming an emphatic victory over Stephen Parry from the British squad. Parry who is a giant of a man compared to Verster held the upper hand after the butterfly leg, however Verster hunted him down during the backstroke and turned in an awesome breastroke section to take the event by the throat. He never looked back and won the event in fine fashion in a time of 1:56.94, slashing .93 seconds off Terence Parkins continental mark established in February 2000. Verster's time is clearly the fastest time for this event in the world for the current season and augers well for the stalwart at the forthcoming FINA World Championships to be held in Moscow. Parry claimed second place in 2:01.94 ahead of compatriot Adrian Turner who posted a 2:02.98 to claim the bronze.

The ladies 200m freestyle saw an exciting tussle that went down to the line when Josefin Lilhage snatched victory from Helene Muller in the death in a race that saw the lead change hands on no less than seven occasions. Lilhage recorded a time of 1:58.56 while Muller posted a 1:58.67 ahead of Swedish ace Johanna Sjoberg who claimed bronze in 1:59.03.

The men's 1500m freestyle brought the curtain down on these highly successful championships with Greame Smith fro the British team posting a convincing victory in a time of 14:58.14 ahead of Terence Parkin 15:28.76 and the promising Troyden Prinsloo from Kloof who claimed bronze in 15:33.49.

By all accounts the visitors thoroughly enjoyed the meet and were pleasantly surprised at the level of competition, which argues well for the future of South African swimming. Hopefully FINA will consider the Federations' request favorably to stage a FINA World Cup meet at this world-class venue in the forthcoming season.

                 Telkom S A National Swimming (25m) Championships              
                         Durban -  3 to 6 January 2002                         
                              Day 4 Results                                    
 

Event 351  Women 200 SC Meter IM
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       World: # 2:07.79  05/12/1993  Allison Wagner                      
      Africa: & 2:15.15  20/04/1997  Julia Russell                       
South Africa: * 2:15.15  20/04/1997  Julia Russell                       
                2:13.70  WSC
    Name                     Age Team                    Seed    Prelims        
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Preliminaries
  1 Igelstr