Coventry and Le Clos shine in pool at All-Africa Games

Kirsty Coventry, pictured at London 2012, claimed gold today for Zimbabwe ©Getty Images

Zimbabwe's International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Kirsty Coventry won a high-quality 100 metres backstroke race today at the All-Africa Games in Brazzaville as South African star Chad Le Clos broke a championship Record en route to his second gold.

Le Clos, the Olympic 200m champion who won five golds at the 2011 edition of the All-African Games in Maputo, dominated the 100m final yesterday but raised his level again today over the shorter distance.

He touched first in 23.51sec to take six hundredths off the time set by Kenya's Jason Dunford four years ago.

The 23-year-old, who has a personal best of 23.29 set at last summer's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, comfortably beat the Egyptian pairing of Omar Eissa and Ahmad Bahgat.

They finished second and third today in respective times of 24.18 and 24.94.

Coventry, another of the continent's biggest sporting stars who claimed the Olympic 200m backstroke title at both Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, won over 100m in 1:01.15 to edge out South African rivals Karin Prinsloo and Jessica Ashley-Cooper.

It was virtually the only blip on another day of South African domination in the pool, however, as Prinsloo herself claimed 400m freestyle gold in 4min 18.86sec, pushing Algeria's Majda Cheboraka into second.

Chad Le Clos, pictured earlier this year, won his second gold today at the All-African Games ©Getty Images

Clayton Jimmie also claimed victory in the 100m freestyle in 49.93, while Martin Bindell won the 200m backstroke in 2:02.23 and Tatjiana Schoenmaker touched first in the 50m breaststroke.

Ashley-Cooper and Prinsloo then teamed up with Marlies Ross and Vanessa Mohr to romp to victory in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay, clocking 1:55.05 to finish ahead of teams from Egypt and Tunisia.

Away from the pol there was more South African success in gymnastics, as Kirsten Beckett won the beam event to add to her all-around and team titles, while there was double gold in aerobic events for the men's team and for the trio of Wilson Maforia, Dominique Mann and Terence Ledwaba.

In an event beset with problems over the opening days, there were more challenges as weightlifting action had to be postponed by 24 hours due to the late arrival of equipment.