Deaf Today: Parkin sets third world record in quest for gold

January 13, 2005

Parkin sets third world record in quest for gold

From: The Mercury, South Africa - Jan 13, 2005

Melbourne: Team SA swimming star Terence Parkin set his third deaf world record within five days, as the aquatics contingent continued to pile up the medals, at the 20th Deaflympics in Melbourne, Australia yesterday.

Parkin took gold in the 200m freestyle in a new world record of 1min 5370sec, with fellow Team SA colleagues Greg Lessing (fifth in 1:59.55) and Nick Lessing (seventh in 2:00.86), before improving on his heat 400m individual medley time of 4:55.25 to take gold in the final in 4:40.63.

Later, KwaZulu-Natal's favourite swimming son joined up with the Lessing brothers and North West's Ivan du Toit to guide Team SA to gold in the 4x100m medley relay in 4:04.26.

Following five days of swimming action at the Deaflympics, the swimming contingent has accumulated all of Team SA's medals at the event with a total of 12 medals (10 gold and two silver) of which nine gold medals (seven individual and two as part of Team SA's relay efforts) have come courtesy of Parkin. - Sapa