Du Rand leads SA charge

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Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:06

South Africa's George du Rand smashed the 200 metres backstroke short course world record while Cameron van der Burgh and Roland Schoeman clocked meet records on the second and final day of the Fina Swimming World Cup leg in Moscow, Russia on Saturday.

Du Rand's world best time of 1:47.08 was inside the previous mark of 1:47.84 held by Austria's Markus Rogan.

Van der Burgh, the world 50m and 100m breaststroke record holder, held his form after setting a World Cup record in the 50m breaststroke on Friday to clock another World Cup record time of 56.36 in the 100m breaststroke.

His previous World Cup record time had stood at 56.60, achieved in the opening leg of the five event series in Durban last month.

Neil Versfeld, who had taken gold in the 200m breaststroke 24 hours earlier, returned to finish fourth the 100m breaststroke final in 57.91.

Fifty metres freestyle world record-holder Schoeman added a World Cup record time of 20.88 to his impressive list of achievements, eclipsing the previous mark of 20.93 which had been set by Swede Stefan Nystrand. Schoeman's Olympic team-mate Lyndon Ferns finished fourth in 21.44.

Ferns did make it on to the medal podium when he finished second in the 100m butterfly in 50.19 in a race which saw Russian Evgeny Korotyshkin set a world record of 48.99. Another South African swimmer, Garth Tune, ended fourth in the same race in 51.13.

Darian Townsend continued from where he left off after, taking silver in the 100m individual medley the previous evening, to win the 200m individual medley title in 1:52.93. Durban teenage swim sensation Chad le Clos ended fourth in 1:57.87.

Kathryn Meaklim and Chanelle van Wyk finished fourth in the 400m individual medley (4:29.56) and 100m backstroke (58.33) respectively.