Chad le Clos captured the support of the big crowd here on Friday night when he produced two electrifying swims on the first night of finals in the Durban leg of the 2009 Fina Arena World Cup Series.
In all, six World Cup records fell with the controversial bodysuits in use for probably the last time in South Africa at an official meeting.
The 17-year-old Westville Boys High School Grade 11 learner set two new national swimming records and an African one to boot as he raced to victory, first in the men's 400m individual medley final and later, in the 200m butterfly final.
Le Clos pulled out all the stops in the freestyle leg to win the race in an SA record time of 4:05,04 from Gilchrist and Jay-Cee Thomson, shredding over three seconds off Terence Parkin's seven-year-old national record of 4:08,19. His 200m performance was equally as exciting winning in an African and South African record time of 1:54,45.
Olympian Roland Schoeman set new World Cup records in the 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly finals, also breaking the African and SA records in the latter. Other World Cup records were set by Jessica Hardy (US) with 1:04,15 in the women's 100m breaststroke, Therese Alshammar (Sweden) with 56,12 in the women's 100m butterfly, Peter Marshall (US) with 49,40 in the men's 100m backstroke and Hinkelein Schreuder (Netherlands) with 26,55 in the women's 50m backstroke.