Egypt’s Ahmed Akram and Farida Osman took the spotlight away from the South Africans on the fourth day of swimming at the All-Africa Games in Brazzaville with strong swims in their respective finals.
Akram’s 3:48.06 held off South Africa’s Devon Brown to win the men’s 400 free final. Akram’s time not only took down the meet record of 3:54.03 by Tunisian Ahmed Mathlouthi, but broke his own national record (swum at last month’s world championships) by one hundredth of a second. Ahmed, getting ready to start his freshman season at the University of South Carolina, had been ranked 22nd in the world with his national record, and keeps that rank today. Brown also improved on his season best by about two tenths of a second with a 3:48.69 for second place. Mathlouthi took third in 3:51.47.
Osman, looking ahead to her junior season at the University of California-Berkeley, posted a 58.83 to not only win the event, but smash Mandy Loots’ meet record of 59.86 from 2011. Osman almost got her national record of 58.22, which she did in a swimoff at the world championships last month. In that swimoff, she lost to Great Britain’s Rachel Kelly for a spot in the semifinals, placing 17th overall.
Osman was the only swimmer under 1:00 in the final in tonight’s final, with South Africa’s Vanessa Mohr taking second with a 1:00.26. Another South African, Rita Naude, was third in 1:03.86.
South Africa won three events at the pool in the Congo, including a 1:09.47 in the women’s 100 breast from Tatjana Schoenmaker to give her a sweep of the women’s breaststroke events. Egypt’s Maii Atif was second with a 1:11.07 and Daniela Lindemeier of Namibia took third in 1:11.31.
Ayrton Sweeney won the men’s 200 breast with a 2:14.41, just missing the meet record of 2:14.27 by Sofiane Diad from 2007. Wassim Elloumi of Tunisia (2:17.80) and Youssef Elkamash of Egypt (2:19.03) rounded out the top three.
Egypt tried to take down the South Africans in the men’s 400 free relay, but the Springboks kept their relay winning streak alive with a 3:19.69 to Egypt’s 3:20.22. Algeria took the bronze with a 3:26.16.
Algeria claimed the other gold medal of the day with an 8:58.53 from Majda Chebaraka in the women’s 800 free. Charlise Oberholzer of South Africa claimed second with a 9:00.15, while Roaia Mashaly of Egypt was third with a 9:07.94.
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W00T!
Mahmoud Turki