11 African records broken in 2018

Schoenmaker, Gallagher and Lovemore the most remarkable

The 2018 season was marked by the fall of 2 oldest long course African records held since 1999 by double Olympic Champion, Penny Heyns (RSA) on 50m breaststroke (30.83) and 100m breaststroke (1.06.52). These records were broken in Sydney during the Pan Pacific Championships.

Tatjana Schoenmaker (RSA), who turned 21 on the 9th July 2108, became the new queen of African breaststroke.  She has taken full advantage of her participation in a highly competitive Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast (Australia) from 5th -10th April. Schoenmaker had to struggle against Australian, Canadian and British competitors to clinch 3 new African records in 50m breaststroke in 30.82(1/100 better than Heyns) , 100m breaststroke in 1.06.42 (1/10 better than Heyns) and 200m breaststroke in 2.22.02 (4th World time of 2018)

The former 200m breaststroke record (2.23.21) was held by Suzan Van Biljon since the 2012 London Olympics. Schoenmaker set a new record in Short Course championships in Durban on the 11 August, her forth continental record on 100m breaststroke in 1.05.12, improving the time of her compatriot Van Biljon (1.05.36) which dates back to 11 April 2008.
Erin Gallagher (RSA), who will be celebrating her 20th birthday on the 18th December, broke five continental records in 50m and 100m freestyle: 2 in 50m pool and 3 in 25m pool.
This very promising sprinter broke twice the record on 100m freestyle in 54.38 and 54.23. The previous record of 54.48 was held by Karin Prinsloo (RSA) since 2014.

At the short course National Championship, Gal-lagher broke three times the African records on 50m freestyle in 24.69 and 24.46 which is better that her compatriot Lize-Mari Retief’s 24.72 set in 2007.On the 100m freestyle, she improved her previous rec-ord of 53.93 by more than 69/100 second in 53.34 .
During the final stage of the FINA World Cup in Singapore, Tayla Lovemore (RSA) broke two African records on 50m butterfly (25.65 and 25.54) the old African record held also by Lize-Mari Retief in 25.90 from 2007.
Schoenmaker, Gallagher and Osman (EGY), Le Clos , Van der Burg and Sahnoun (ALG) are much awaited at the next FINA SC World Championships in Hangzhou from 11-16 December.

Breakdown of African Records 2010-2018