South Africa Champs - Day 2
1999-09-06
Neville Smith

Dedekind Claims Third Record

Johannesburg - Swim sprint star Brendon Dedekind (Pitermaritzburg Seals) scorched an icy Ellis Park pool as he cracked his third record in two days, shaving one-hundredth of a second off his own 50m freestyle African mark at the South Africa "Telkom" Short-Course Championships on Friday.

The electrical engineering student torpedoed the two-lap heat in 21,94 seconds - improving on the 21,95 he posted nearly a year ago

"It's really cold. I couldn't feel my strokes, my body was numb," said the 23-year-old who on Thursday broke the 50m breaststroke continental mark in the morning heats and then the Commonwealth record in the evening semifinals.

But Dedekind - who won 50m freestyle gold at the Pan Pacifics in Sydney in the world's fifth-fastest long-course time ever at 22,06 seconds - believes he can pull his time down even more in the evening semifinal if the chilly wind dies down and the sun gets a chance to shine.

"I think I can go faster. It just depends on the weather and if everything goes alright. I know I can break the world short-course record (21,31), but the chances are I won't get it here.

"But I'm just having fun," he added, "riding a wave from Sydney."

Cape Town schoolgirl Sarah Poewe (Vineyard) clocked the quickest time in the women's 200m breaststroke heats and, with triple world record-holder Penny Heyns (Toti) having scratched from this event, looks set to win her first gold medal at a senior national championship.

But Poewe, Pan Pacs bronze medallist behind Heyns in the 200m breaststroke, had a slow heat in 2mins 39,05secs - nearly six seconds short of the qualifying time for the World Short-course Championships in Athens in March.

"It's freezing, but I should improve my time. It's quite hard at altitude and it'll be a bit difficult swimming without Penny."

With the exception of Dedekind, none of the morning's other swimmers warmed to the cold conditions enough to beat the criteria.

Deaf Durbanite Terence Parkin (Seaguls), 200m breaststroke bronze winner at the Pan Pacifics, was the fastest in the 100m breaststroke in 1:04,17.

Herman Louw (Linrand) had the best time in the 100m individual medley in 59,28, just ahead of favourite Theo Verster ( Kings Park) in 59,36.

The 100m Individual Medley Africa record is held by Dedekind, who pulled out of the event to focus on the 50m freestyle.

In the women's 100m Indevidual Medley, Charlene Wittstock ( Seaguls) was quickest in 1:04,91.

Mandy Loots ( Dolphins) set the pace in the women's 50m butterfly (28,98), Adrian Bosch(Rand Afrikaans University) in the men's 400m freestyle (4:07,09) and 16 year old George du Rand( Bloemfontien Seals) in the men's 200m backstroke (2:05,28).