Fourth victory for Kirsty Coventry (17-07-07)

the continent and her country and yesterday she set a new African record, a new All-Africa Games record and eclipsed the Zimbabwe record when winning the 50-metre backstroke in 28,89 seconds.
She won the event ahead of South Africans Channelle Van Wyk who clocked 30,35s and Jessica Pengelly who finished in 30,90s.
Coventry broke the All-Africa Games record of 30,18s set by South Africa’s Lize Marie Retif at the Abuja Games in Nigeria four years ago.
Her time also beat the African record of 29,18s set by Charlene Whittstock of South Africa in 2002 and edged the national record of 29,43s she set in Harare in July 2002.
Coventry is by nature not a breaststroke swimmer although she surprisingly entered for the 100m event at the Games here.
The Olympic gold medallist had appeared destined to miss out on the medals podium for the first time in the Algiers competition when she finished fourth in the morning heats in 1.15.69s.
But the 24-year-old just stepped a gear up in the breaststroke final, turning the heat on eventual winner Suzaan Van Biljon (1,09,74s) and settling for her first silver.
She completed the race with a huge improvement on her time when recording 1,11,86s a new Zimbabwe record that beat L. Tannock’s 1985 record of 1,16,11s.

****
FIVE Zimbabwean athletes and officials are holed up in Rome a week after they embarked on a journey to the All-Africa Games and their passports have been confiscated by the Italian immigration authorities.
Athletics manager Salatiel Zangure, coach Benson Chauke, triple jumper Ngonidzaishe Makusha, taekwondo coach Ndawona Kembo and his protege Bervis Menyapwa are stuck in the Italian capital after failing to secure seats on the connecting flight to Algiers.
It also emerged that the quintet had their passports confiscated by the Italian immigration authorities who have seen the Zimbabweans literally camped at the airport in Rome since Saturday.
Sport and Recreation Commission chiefs who are here and should shoulder the blame for the chaotic manner in which Team Zimbabwe travelled were today (July 17) said to be making frantic efforts to secure assistance from the Zimbabwean Embassy in Rome via the country’s embassy in Libya.
But for Zangure, Chauke, Makusha, Kembo and Manyepwa, it has clearly been a nightmare in Rome and they also risk missing the start of their disciplines’ competitions tomorrow.
The five were part of a 19-member delegation that had to endure two days of waiting again in the transit lounge at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and only managed to resume their journey after the intervention of the officials from the Zimbabwe Embassy in South Africa.
Team Zimbabwe assistant general manager Tawanda Manyeruke said yesterday he was hopeful the five athletes and officials’ problem would be resolved in time to enable them to fly to Algiers last night or at the latest today.
Manyeruke said the last 19-member batch had encountered problems connecting to Algiers because they could not be flown to Frankfurt, Germany, and then Rome without the Schengen visa that is necessary when travelling between those two countries.
All the 19 members had, after the intervention of the embassy in South Africa, been issued with the Schengen visas at the German Embassy in Pretoria.