Erasmus, Team SA break All-Africa Games records
This year was Erasmus’ second appearance at the games, which take place every four years.
Parkrand swimming star Douglas Erasmus and his Team South Africa relay teammates smashed two records on their way to three gold medals at the 2019 All-Africa Games hosted in Morocco between August 19 and 31.
In the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay race, the team of Erasmus, Ryan Coetzee, Emma Chelius and Erin Gallagher set a new African record time of 3:31.24, slightly shading the old record of 3:31.38.
It didn’t end there for the country’s in-form swimmers. Erasmus was also involved in the record-breaking 4x100m medley relay race which saw Team South Africa touch the wall in 3:40.24 to set a new games mark, smashing the old target of 3:42.34.
Erasmus’ third gold arrived in the 4x100m freestyle, which was one of the more exciting races of the tournament. The 29-year-old Boksburg swimmer described it as the sweetest gold of them all because of the level of competition.
Team SA edged out Egypt, whom Erasmus described as their toughest competition.
Quizzed on which gold was the sweetest to win, Erasmus said: “Definitely the 4x100m free men, it was the closest race by far. All of us had to dig really deep to pull off the win. It came down to the last 10m and we only won by 0.2 seconds.
“We were dead even the whole way, with South Africa slightly ahead and Egypt second. They were our biggest competition in every event.”
Brad Tandy started things off for Team SA before Coetzee and Martin Binedell maintained the advantage for the home team. Erasmus handled the anchor leg.
In the individual events, Erasmus competed in the 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle. He finished fourth in each of the races in the respective times of 50.32 seconds, 24.05 and 22.57.
He said: “I am very happy with my performance. I gave my utmost best in every race and I am the fastest I’ve been over the last two years, so very excited about that.”
In the 4x100m medley race, the local swimmer again anchored the freestyle leg, with Binedell, Alaric Basson and Coetzee swimming the preceding backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly legs respectively.
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