Athens - Roland Schoeman, riding the medal wave at the Athens Olympics, continued to make strong impact on the swimming competition at the Aquatic Centre on Thursday night.
Schoeman, on fire with an Olympic gold from the 100m freestyle relay and silver from the 100m freestyle, surged into Friday night's final with the fastest semi-final time of
21.99sec.
Australia's Brett Hawke didn't even come close at second in 22.07sec, neither did America's Jason Lezak in winning his semi-final in 22:12.
"We're not finished here yet," said Schoeman after he spearheaded the relay team to victory against America on Sunday night.
The way the Tucson University-based swimmer is surging through the water at the Olympics, he is in contention for another gold that would equal the double-gold won by Penny
Heyns in Atlanta 1996.
"The 50m is all about quick reaction and explosive energy," said Schoeman shortly after arriving in Athens.
On Wednesday night, he demonstrated what that meant with his 0.65sec reaction time off the blocks.
Hawke pounced at 0.69 and Lezak, the strongest finisher among Schoeman's rivals, at 0.72.
Lyndon Ferns, who raced to gold with Schoeman in the relay, finished out of final contention with 22.52sec that gave him seventh.
Blast from the blocks
Schoeman is focused on the 50m final and did his customary walk-through the media area with no comment until after his medal campaign.
He impressed earlier on Thursday with a little more than 12 hours to recover from his silver medal to blast from the blocks with the fastest reaction time off the mark.
But, he slacked off to third behind America's Gary Hall and Alegeria's Salim Iles.
Hall topped the heats with 22.04, but was left for third in the semis in 22,18.
Hall came to the Olympics as the top-ranked 50m exponent of the season with a 21.91 from the American trials.
Didn't make the cut
Schoeman came to Athens ranked second with his 21.98 from the nationals in Durban - a time he shared with Jason Lezak.
Eugene Botes made his debut in the Olympics on Thursday morning, but the US-based swimmer failed to make the cut in the 100m butterfly.
After turning in fifth position, Botes dropped to seventh in 54.15 seconds for a 30th ranking from the heats.
" It's not my best time, so I'm disappointed," said Botes who's next outing will the 4X100m medley.
"We will give it our best shot, but will do well to get into the last eight."
