Van der Burgh gives SA a golden finale

Cameron van der Burgh bounced back in spectacular fashion to give South Africa its fourth gold medal of the world short-course swimming championships in Canada on Sunday night.

After failing to advance past the heats of the 100m breaststroke early in the week‚ Van der Burgh produced his finest in the final session of the gala‚ obliterating the field in the 50m breaststroke.

His 25.64sec effort was just one-hundredth of a second outside the championship record belonging to Brazilian Felipe Franca Silva‚ who ended joint fifth in 26.13‚ alongside Van der Burgh’s mate and training partner‚ Giolio Zorzi.

The duo had shared the 50m breaststroke podium at the 2013 world long-course championships in Barcelona‚ where Van der Burgh had taken gold and Zorzi bronze.

But it wasn’t to be in Canada‚ and for good reason.

Zorzi’s right knee was a mess — the synthetic cartilage inserted surgically early in the year snapped completely during training recently.

Zorzi’s time in the final was slightly slower than his 26.08 in the semifinals‚ but even that would not have improved his ranking in the final.

Peter Stevens of Slovenia was second in 25.85 and Felipe Lima of Brazil third in 25.98.

For Van der Burgh‚ who put his training on ice while focusing on his looming move from Pretoria to Cape Town‚ it was a great performance; the old cowboy is still king of the corral.

In terms of gold medals won‚ South Africa ended the gala fourth on the medals table‚ with Chad Le Clos contributing three golds and one silver; in terms of total medal count‚ SA was 10th.

That’s the good news. The bad news comes when searching for the country’s future talent — the last time a South African other than Van der Burgh and Le Clos won a medal at the biennial world short-course championship was in 2008. - TMG Digital