The 8th All African Games held in Abuja (Nigeria) from Oct 5-11, attracted 21 countries and 117 competitors (63 men and 54 women).

Four years ago at the 7th Games in Johannesburg (RSA) 128 competitors from 18 countries took place. In Barcelona last July at the FINA World Championships 25 countries from Africa took part mostly due to financial support from FINA.

In Abuja the program of the swimming events grew to 40 with the addition of the stroke 50s in back, breast and fly, as well as the men's 800 freestyle and women's 1500 freestyle.

South Africa dominated the swimming events winning 53 of the 120 available medals with 25 gold, 19 silver, and 9 bronze, even though they were missing some of the male stars such as Ryk Neethling, Roland Schoeman, Theo Verster, Terence Parkin, and Gerhard Zandberg. The RSA women won all 20 of their events.

Egypt finished in second with 36 total medals (6-12-18) ahead of Tunisia 13 (6-2-5), Algeria with 8 (3-3-2), Seychelles 4 (0-3-1), Senegal 4 (0-1-3) and Nigeria 2 (0-1-1).

There were first-time medals for the Seychelles and Senegal. And Nigeria last won swimming medals in 1973, picked up a silver in the women's 50 free and a bronze in the women's 50 breaststroke.

27 Games records were established in Abuja, 16 by (RSA), 7 (EGY), 3 (TUN), 1 (ALG). Lize-M Retief (RSA) and Ahmed Hussein (EGY) had four records each with Oussama Mellouli (TUN) with three.

Mellouli (TUN) was the top performer with six individual golds, 200, 400, 800, 1500 free, and the 200 and 400 IM. He won a bronze in 400 IM at the World Championships in July in Barcelona.

RATING SUMMARY OF TOP PERFORMANCES
1)	959	25.84	50 back M	Moustapha Ahmed H.,82,EGY
2)	944	22.71	50 free M	Iles Salim,75,ALG
3)	939	1:02.89	100 back W	Altmann Romy,83,RSA
 	939	1:02.99	100 breast M	Muller Kurt,84,RSA
5)	937	4:11.37	4x100 medley W	South Africa,RSA
6)	932	2:16.86	200 breast M	Versfeld Neil,85,RSA
7)	930	56.79	100 free W	Roets Lauren,87,RSA
8)	927	15:35.97	1500 free M	Mellouli Oussama,84,TUN
9)	924	24.79	50 fly M	Ackerman Stephan,83,RSA
10)	923	54.81	100 fly M	Hazem Haitham,78,EGY



ALL AFRICAN GAMES
Abuja, Nigeria, Oct 5-11 2003

MEN

50 METRES FREESTYLE
1	22.71	Iles Salim,75,ALG
2	23.66	Ackerman Stephan,83,RSA
3	23.83	Muller Kurt,84,RSA

100 METRES FREESTYLE
1	50.32	Iles Salim,75,ALG
2	51.54	Ackerman Stephan,83,RSA
3	52.26	Hazem Haitham,78,EGY

200 METRES FREESTYLE
1	1:52.94	Mellouli Oussama,84,TUN
2	1:54.17	Ackerman Stephan,83,RSA
3	1:54.82	Wilson Nick,81,RSA

400 METRES FREESTYLE
1	4:00.43	Mellouli Oussama,84,TUN
2	4:06.51	Ben Naceur Anouar,83,TUN
3	4:07.59	Mebarek Mahrez,85,ALG

800 METRES FREESTYLE
1	8:12.26	Mellouli Oussama,84,TUN
2	8:33.49	El Gamal Omar,84,EGY
3	8:36.78	Hanafy Khaled,83,EGY

1500 METRES FREESTYLE
1	15:35.97	Mellouli Oussama,84,TUN
2	16:21.49	El Gamal Omar,84,EGY
3	16:40.61	Hanafy Khaled,83,EGY

50 METRES BACKSTROKE
1	25.89	Hussein Ahmed,82,EGY
2	27.04	Thirsk Simon,77,RSA
3	27.30	Hazem Haitham,78,EGY

100 METRES BACKSTROKE
1	55.75	Hussein Ahmed,82,EGY
2	57.60	Thirsk Simon,77,RSA
3	58.46	Hazem Haitham,78,EGY

200 METRES BACKSTROKE
1	2:02.46	Hussein Ahmed,82,EGY
2	2:07.42	Norton Jeff,82,RSA
3	2:09.79	Thirsk Simon,77,RSA

50 METRES BREASTSTROKE
1	28.75	Muller Kurt,84,RSA
2	29.10	Daid Sofiane,82,ALG
3	29.28	Fall Malick,85,SEN

100 METRES BREASTSTROKE
1	1:02.99	Muller Kurt,84,RSA
2	1:04.05	Daid Sofiane,82,ALG
3	1:04.10	Khattab Ayman,82,EGY

200 METRES BREASTSTROKE
1	2:16.86	Versfeld Neil,85,RSA
2	2:18.49	Khattab Ayman,82,EGY
3	2:20.33	Fall Malick,85,SEN

50 METRES BUTTERFLY
1	24.79	Ackerman Stephan,83,RSA
2	24.84	Hazem Haitham,78,EGY
3	25.21	Muller Kurt,84,RSA

100 METRES BUTTERFLY
1	54.81	Hazem Haitham,78,EGY
2	54.95	Ackerman Stephan,83,RSA
3	55.25	Salah Ahmed,86,EGY

200 METRES BUTTERFLY
1	2:02.91	Salah Ahmed,86,EGY
2	2:03.99	El Abbadi Ahmed,84,EGY
3	2:05.15	Ben Naceur Anouar,83,TUN

200 METRES IND.MEDLEY
1	2:06.91	Mellouli Oussama,84,TUN
2	2:09.08	Fall Malick,85,SEN
3	2:09.91	Versfeld Neil,85,RSA

400 METRES IND.MEDLEY
1	4:29.68	Mellouli Oussama,84,TUN
2	4:39.37	Versfeld Neil,85,RSA
3	4:46.08	El Gamal Omar,84,EGY

4X100 MEDLEY RELAY
1	3:46.67	Egypt,EGY
2	3:47.92	South Africa,RSA
3	3:55.25	Algeria,ALG

4X100 FREE RELAY
1	3:27.05	Algeria,ALG
2	3:29.63	South Africa,RSA
3	3:30.65	Egypt,EGY

4X200 FREE RELAY
1	7:42.45	South Africa,RSA
2	7:45.22	Algeria,ALG
3	7:50.91	Egypt,EGY


WOMEN

50 METRES FREESTYLE
1	26.31	Roets Lauren,87,RSA
2	27.71	Monu Ngozi,81,NGR
3	28.16	Chahed Nadia,84,TUN

100 METRES FREESTYLE
1	56.79	Roets Lauren,87,RSA
2	57.90	Zwiegers Christin,87,RSA
3	58.53	Zeinhoum Salma,86,EGY

200 METRES FREESTYLE
1	2:06.27	Roets Lauren,87,RSA
2	2:08.84	van Heerden Kirsten,79,RSA
3	2:09.00	Ciss Khadua,82,SEN

400 METRES FREESTYLE
1	4:28.19	van Heerden Kirsten,79,RSA
2	4:29.13	Selim Heba,82,EGY
3	4:30.84	Austin Shrone,89,SEY

800 METRES FREESTYLE
1	9:09.66	du Toit Natalie,84,RSA
2	9:13.03	Austin Shrone,89,SEY
3	9:17.15	Selim Heba,82,EGY

1500 METRES FREESTYLE
1	17:24.64	van Rensburg Velia,84,RSA
2	17:30.27	Austin Shrone,89,SEY
3	17:35.23	Selim Heba,82,EGY

50 METRES BACKSTROKE
1	30.18	Retief Lize-M.,87,RSA
2	30.29	Altmann Romy,83,RSA
3	31.06	Obia Inyengiyik,84,NGR

100 METRES BACKSTROKE
1	1:02.89	Altmann Romy,83,RSA
2	1:07.61	Bergman Jo-Ann,84,RSA
3	1:07.94	Chahed Sarah,88,TUN

200 METRES BACKSTROKE
1	2:15.15	Altmann Romy,83,RSA
2	2:22.50	Retief Lize-M.,87,RSA
3	2:26.12	Abdallah Soha,82,EGY

50 METRES BREASTSTROKE
1	32.89	Haiden Ingrid,85,RSA
2	32.99	Jardine Ziada,85,RSA
3	33.33	Zeinhoum Salma,86,EGY

100 METRES BREASTSTROKE
1	1:11.00	Haiden Ingrid,85,RSA
2	1:11.92	Zeinhoum Salma,86,EGY
3	1:12.82	Jardine Ziada,85,RSA

200 METRES BREASTSTROKE
1	2:32.66	Haiden Ingrid,85,RSA
2	2:37.28	Zeinhoum Salma,86,EGY
3	2:43.50	Jardine Ziada,85,RSA

50 METRES BUTTERFLY
1	27.56	Retief Lize-M.,87,RSA
2	28.53	Sparg Lauren,84,RSA
3	29.78	Raafat May,84,EGY

100 METRES BUTTERFLY
1	1:01.78	Retief Lize-M.,87,RSA
2	1:02.63	Sparg Lauren,84,RSA
3	1:05.01	Raafat May,84,EGY

200 METRES BUTTERFLY
1	2:17.47	Retief Lize-M.,87,RSA
2	2:20.05	Van Wyk Chanelle,84,RSA
3	2:20.80	Raafat May,84,EGY

200 METRES IND.MEDLEY
1	2:21.64	Retief Lize-M.,87,RSA
2	2:23.89	Zeinhoum Salma,86,EGY
3	2:24.42	Meyer Bianca,89,RSA

400 METRES IND.MEDLEY
1	5:03.06	Meyer Bianca,89,RSA
2	5:09.41	Austin Shrone,89,SEY
3	5:13.75	van Heerden Kirsten,79,RSA

4X100 MEDLEY RELAY
1	4:11.37	South Africa,RSA
2	4:31.84	Egypt,EGY
3	4:37.84	Tunisia,TUN

4X100 FREE RELAY
1	3:52.74	South Africa,RSA
2	4:04.68	Egypt,EGY
3	4:04.68	Tunisia,TUN

4X200 FREE RELAY
1	8:40.84	South Africa,RSA
2	8:45.18	Egypt,EGY
3	8:53.35	Tunisia,TUN