Kirsty Coventry strikes 4th gold medal at All Africa games

By Lance Guma
17 July 2007

Zimbabwe’s Olympic champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry won a record 4th gold medal at the All Africa Games in Algeria on Monday. The swimmer also boasts a silver medal to add to her collection. She has taken the 9th edition of the games by storm, breaking several records along the way. On Monday she set a new All Africa Games record after winning the 50-metre backstroke in 28.89 seconds. She beat her own Zimbabwean record in the process of setting another for the African continent.

In beating South Africans Channelle Van Wyk and Jessica Pengelly, Coventry broke the record set by another South African, Lize Marie Retiff, 4 years ago at the Nigerian edition of the games in Abuja. More amazing is that Coventry is not normally a breaststroke swimmer and surprised many by entering for that event. When she finished fourth in morning heats, it looked as if she would regret the decision. She however tore up the script to come second in the event, setting another Zimbabwean record for her troubles.

The swimmer has already won the 100-metre backstroke by setting another All Africa Games record of 1 minute 1,28 seconds. She has also won the 800-metre freestyle in 8 minutes 43 seconds, another games record. Coventry could have added another medal in the freestyle relay, were it not for the fact that the Zimbabwe team was disqualified for a false start. During the race she had pushed Zimbabwe’s position from 5th to 2nd only for the disqualification to take away a second silver to add to the 4 gold medals.