Three more qualifying times for the 2010 Commonwealth Games were achieved at Tuesday night's second session of finals of the Telkom SA Swimming Senior National Championships at the King's Park Aquatic Centre in Durban.
This brought the total to four with Chad le Clos's qualification in the 200m butterfly on the opening night.
But the cherry on the top was a world disabled swimmer's record by Natalie du Toit in the S9 category of the women's 50m butterfly final, in which she defended the title she won at the 2009 nationals.
Olympian Roland Schoeman returned to something like his best form when he returned a Commonwealth Games qualifying time of 23.58 in the second heat of the men's 50m butterfly.
This was 0.15 under the qualifying time of 23.73 to make the grade for the South African team for New Delhi in October. He said his stroke tempo was "a little too fast", but that he was happy with his time. Asked if the "no suit rule" suited him, he replied: "Definitely!"
The second Commonwealth Games qualifying time of the evening was achieved by world record holder Cameron van der Burgh (NT) in the second heat of the men's 100m breaststroke semi-finals when he touched in 1:00.96. The qualifying time is 1:01.57, and his previous best time without a fast suit was 1:01.10.
Van der Burgh said he had felt quite nervous during the morning heats as it was his first race without the suit.
"It's all about rhythm in the breaststroke," said the 22-year-old Pretoria-based swimmer.
"I didn't quite have it this morning, but it came together tonight.
"I've been doing a lot of endurance work and not much speed work but that will pay off later in the year."
Jean Basson (CG) rounded off the major men's events for the evening with a third Games qualifying time of 1:48.88 in the final of the 200m freestyle.
This was 0.24 second under the required time of 1:48.72, with Darian Townsend (KZN) missing the cut by just under a second in 1:49.68 and Sebastien Rousseau (WP) third in 1:50.22.
Basson said that it had been a hard race for him, coming so soon after Monday night's 400m freestyle final when he had come second to Mark Randall.
He had also been trying to shrug off the effects of jet lag from his long flight back from Arizona.
"My legs are killing me," he said, "and I think perhaps I was a little too aggressive in the first 100m."
Basson said it was the first time he had swum this distance in a long course since the 2009 World Championships in Rome but that he had wanted to "redeem himself after losing the 200m free to Randall".
In women's finals, it was disabled swimmer Natalie du Toit who stole the limelight, breaking her own world record for the 50m butterfly in her S9 category with a new best time of 31.98.
"It has been a long time since I did a fast time in the pool," said the irrepressible Du Toit.
"To think I am swimming in 50m to 100m races only two days after I was doing 10km and 5km in the national open-water champs at Midmar Dam", she laughed.
Vanessa Mohr (NT) won the 50m butterfly final in 27.74 from Mandy Loots (CG, 27.79) and Chanelle van Wyk (NT, 28.21), and in the 50m breaststroke final it was Taryn Mackenzie (CG) first in 33.22 from Jeanie du Toit (CG, 33.42) and Keri Plumstead (EP, 33.46).