With five gold medals from six races and two Championship records, the fourth day of the XII CANA African Swimming Championships in a very rainy Bloemfontein, concluded on a high note for the South African team on Thursday.

Their latest success means that South Africa have now won 43 medals, 22 of them gold. Algeria and Egypt are second and third in the standings.

It all started with Myles Brown, who broke Troyden Prinsloo’s 12-year-old Championship record in the 400-metre freestyle, clocking 3 min 54.80 sec, compared  to the 2004 time of 3:57.30. Egypt’s Marwan Elamrawy finished second in 3:56.45 and Algeria’s Lounis Khendriche third in 4:02.15.

Ayrton Sweeney and Alaric Basson claimed the top two positions in the 200m breaststroke in 2:16.96 and 2:20.82 respectively, while Egypt’s Hassan Yasser walked away with the bronze in 2:21.17.

In the 100m breaststroke, Kaylene Corbett added another gold medal to her tally when she finished in 1:11.81. SA’s Hanim Abrahams followed with the silver in 1:12.35 and Egypt’s Mai Atef with the bronze in 1:12.49.

Nathania van Niekerk’s quick start won her gold in the 100m butterfly in 1:02.61, with Egypt’s Mariam Sakr and Rowaida Hesham claiming the silver and bronze in 1:03.11 and 1:03.23 respectively.

Algeria’s Souad Nefissa Cheroua won the long-distance 800m freestyle final, touching the wall in 9:10.29 ahead of Egypt’s Reem Kassem in 9:13.95 and Mzansi’s Michelle Weber in 9:15.89.

To end off the evening finals, the South African quartet of Brown, Douglas Erasmus, Eben Vorster and Calvyn Justus were simply unstoppable in the 4x100m freestyle relay, breaking the six-year Championship record in a new time of 3:22.76 compared to the 2010 time of 3:23.99.

The Egyptian team finished over three seconds behind the South Africans in 3:25.52, followed by Senegal in 3:39.50.

Friday’s heats start at 10:00, while the finals will begin at 16:00 daily.

Photo of Brown: Gerhard Steenkamp/SuperImage Media