SA swimmers continue to light up African Games pool

South Africa’s swimmers continued to make their presence felt on the podium, claiming eight more medals on the penultimate night of action at the African Games in Accra, Ghana on Tuesday.

Catherine van Rensburg picked up her third individual gold medal of the championships after storming to victory in the 400m individual medley. She finished in a time of 4 minutes 56.13 seconds with teammate Kate Meyer taking the bronze in 5:02.63.

Simone Moll also made another visit to the top of the podium, adding the 50m breaststroke title to the 100m breaststroke gold she claimed earlier in the competition. Moll finished in a new African Games record time of 31.96 seconds with Meyer once again in on the action, claiming the silver in 33.03.

Moll had made her intentions clear in the morning session, smashing the previous Games record of 32.20 that was set by fellow South African and Olympic finalist Kaylene Corbett in 2019, and then bettered it again in the final.

The other South African gold of the night came from the men’s 4x100m freestyle team of Jarden Eaton, Cameron Casali, Liam Vehbi and Jonah Pool-Jones who claimed victory in a time of 3:23.86, well ahead of Egypt (3:25.43) and Nigeria (3:26.01).

Meanwhile, Talya Jonker added a third silver medal to her individual haul, finishing second in the 100m backstroke in 1:03.36 after just being edged out by five hundredths of a second by Egypt’s Sara El Sammany.

Fresh from his shared gold medal performance in the 50m backstroke a day earlier, Jonah Pool-Jones secured the bronze in the 100m event, finishing in 56.98 seconds. The man he shared the gold with on Monday, Algeria’s Abdellah Ardjoune, once again topped the podium in the longer race, finishing in 55.94 with Zimbabwe’s Denilson Cyprianos taking silver in 56.32.

There was another bronze medal for Liam Vehbi after finishing the men’s 400m individual medley in a time of 4:31.54. The Algerian duo of Jaouad Syoud (4:24.59) and Ramzi Chouchar (4:30.95) won the gold and silver.

The swimming competition at the African Games wraps up on Wednesday.

SA swimming medals at the African Games

GOLD

Clayton Jimmie (100m freestyle)

Caitlin de Lange (100m freestyle)

Catherine van Rensburg (1500m freestyle)

Simone Moll (100m breaststroke)

Catherine van Rensburg (400m freestyle)

Cailtin de Lange (50m backstroke)

Jonah Pool-Jones (50m backstroke)

Catherine van Rensburg (400m individual medley)

Simone Moll (50m breaststroke)

Mixed 4x100m freestyle relay (Cailtin de Lange, Georgia Els, Andrew Ross, Clayton Jimmie)

Mixed 4x100m medley relay (Tayla Jonker, Petrus Truter, Jarden Eaton, Caitlin de Lange)

Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay (Hannah Mouton, Leigh McMorran, Kate Meyer, Catherine van Rensburg)

Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay (Jarden Eaton, Cameron Casali, Liam Vehbi, Jonah Pool-Jones)

SILVER

Matthew Caldwell (800m freestyle)

Leigh McMorran (200m butterfly)

Hannah Mouton (200m freestyle)

Georgia Els (100m breaststroke)

Caitlin de Lange (50m butterfly)

Tayla Jonker (200m backstroke)

Matthew Caldwell (400m freestyle)

Kate Meyer (200m breaststroke)

Tayla Jonker (50m backstroke)

Jarden Eaton (100m butterfly)

Kate Meyer (50m breaststroke)

Tayla Jonker (100m backstroke)

Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay (Andrew Ross, Tumelo Mahan, Cameron Casali, Matthew Caldwell)

BRONZE

Liam Vehbi (200m butterfly)

Catherine van Rensburg (200m freestyle)

Andre Ross (200m freestyle)

Jarden Eaton (50m butterfly)

Helgaard Muller (200m backstroke)

Hannah Mouton (400m freestyle)

Cameron Casali (400m freestyle)

Georgia Els (200m breaststroke)

Andrew Ross (200m breaststroke)

Kate Meyer (400m individual medley)

Jonah Pool-Jones (100m backstroke)

Liam Vehbi (400m individual medley)