Chad clocks five titles; Wittstock's record bettered

Sebastien Rousseau last night became the sixth SA swimmer to qualify for the Commonwealth Games at the national championships in Durban.

But he still had to play second fiddle to Chad le Clos, Olympic, World and Commonwealth Games champion.

Le Clos - after earlier winning the 100m freestyle crown - beat him in the 400m individual medley to take his title tally to five.

Le Clos clocked 4min 14.81sec, and Rousseau, owner of the 4:11.11 national record, was second in 4:18.17.

Le Clos was chuffed to have survived his toughest day of the competition.

"I said from the start that this is the hardest day for me," explained Le Clos.

The Olympic champion also had to compete in the 100m butterfly semifinals, in which he did enough to qualify for the final.

As expected, Cameron van der Burgh was fastest in the semifinals of the men's 50m breaststroke, touching in 27.05.

It's the second-fastest time in the world this year.

• Princess Charlene's foundation is a sponsor at the championships, but last night her name fell from the national record book after 14 years.

Charlene Wittstock - as she was known before marrying into Monaco's royalty - had been part of the KwaZulu-Natal team that clocked 1min 45.83sec in the women's 4x50m freestyle relay in February 2000.

Wittstock, who competed at the Sydney Olympics later that year, had swum the record with Julia Russell, Stacey Bowley and Christine Cech. The latter is the cousin of 2004 Olympic rowing bronze medallist, Don Cech.

Last night, the Northern Tigers foursome of Lehesta Kemp, Marlies Ross, Amy Peens and Vanessa Mohr took 17-hundredths of a second off the old mark, clocking 1:45.66.

The oldest SA women's record, from August 23, 1999, is the 100m breaststroke (1:06.52), belonging to Penny Heyns.