Full House as Neethling Bags Last African Title

Distance specialist Ryk Neethling (Free State) captured the only individual men's Africa record not owned by a South African as he retained his national 100m freestyle title at the Telkom SA National Aquatic Championships at the Kings Park Aquatic Complex in Durban on Thursday night.

His incredible 49.71 - more than 1/10th of a second quicker than Algerian Salim Iles' 49.82 - also rocketed him to 14th in the world based on the 1999 "World Rankings" published by Swimnews Online.

Neethling came from behind to snatch victory at the death from University of Arizona teammate Roland Schoeman (Northern Tigers), who also dipped below the previous continental mark with a 49.79. Nicholas Folker (KZN)(50.33) led the pack into the turn with a fast 24.09 and with 20 meters to go it was anybody