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Day 2 Recap

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October 16th, 2009--

In the first day of action in Durban, South Africa, there were many fast swims, with notable American performances coming from Jessica Hardy, Peter Marshall, and Whitney Myers.

Hardy, whose year-long suspension for testing positive for the banned stimulant Clenbuterol ended in August, is fresh off of setting 2 world records at the 2009 U.S. Open National Championships in the 100 and 50 LCM breaststroke events. In the women’s 100m breaststroke, Hardy ran away from the field to set an American and World Cup record in 1:04.15.

Marshall had a similarly dominating performance in the men’s 100m backstroke, where he set broke his own American and World Cup records with a time of 49.40. Two other national records were broken in the event, with second place finisher Markus Rogan of Austria taking down his country’s mark in a 50.61, and South Africa’s George Du Rang setting the mark on his home turf at 51.50 on the way to a fourth place finish. Stanislav Donets of Russia finished third in the event, but alas did not set a national record.

Whitney Myers was a double winner on the day, in taking both the 200m I.M. and 200m backstroke events. Her time in the 200m I.M. was 2:09.10 and in the 200m backstroke 2:07.26.

The home South African contingent also had an excellent day in the water.

The South African trio of Kathryn Meaklim, Jessica Pengelly, and Rene Warnes took first, second, and third place respectively in the women’s 800m freestyle. Meaklim and Pengelly dueled the whole race, with Meaklim taking the win in 8:29.51 just ahead of Pengelly at 8:29.97.Warnes, who never threatened to win the race, finished in 8:47.83.

Not to be outdone by their female teammates, Roland Schoeman had a huge upset of 2008 World Cup champion Cameron van der Burgh in the 50m breaststroke, and countryman Neil Versfeld touched in third to complete a South African sweep of the event.

Versfeld did manage to top the podium in his specialty, the 200m breaststroke, with a national record time of 2:03.35. Two more South African breaststrokers medaled to sweep another breaststroke event, with Willima Diering placing second and Terence Parkin finishing third. With these two impressive performances, South Africa seems to have established itself as a world force in the breaststroke discipline.

South African Chad Le Clos caught the field by surprise in winning the 400 I.M. out of lane 8. His time of 4:05.04 absolutely obliterated both the old South African national record by over 3 seconds, and his competitors, by nearly the same amount. In the age of high tech suits and high tech training, a record standing for 7 years is an eternity, but that record is no more. In an exhaustive double, Le Clos also set a South African record in winning the 200m butterfly with a time of 1:54.45.

Other event winners were Hinkelien Schreuder of the Netherlands in the Women’s 50m backstroke (26.55), Sergey Fesikov of Russia in the Men’s 100m freestyle (46.30) and 100m I.M. (51.96), Felicity Galvez of Australia in the Women’s 200m freestyle (1:57.60), Therese Alshammar of Sweden in the Women’s 100m fly (56.12) and 50m free (23.74), and Dominik Meichtry of Switzerland in the Men’s 400m freestyle (3:42.09).

All-in-all it was an exciting day of swimming, with multiple National records being set in almost every event. Day 2 sets up to be an equally exciting event.

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