Rio De Janeiro – Cameron van der Burgh posted the third fastest time of the 100m breaststroke semi-finals for a chance of defending his title at Rio Olympic Games today.
World record-holder Adam Peaty of Great Britain dipped below 58 seconds for the second time in one day to win the semi in a time of 57.62 seconds.
Van der Burgh finished in third place behind the Briton clocking 59.21s with American Cody Miller touching in second place with 59.05s.
Peaty was in a class of his own, and it looks increasingly possible that he could usurp Van der Burgh.
The young pretender is the only swimmer ever to have dipped below 58 seconds in the 100m breaststroke, a feat he has reached on three occasions.
Peaty carried the same confidence Van der Burgh did four years ago following his semi-final in London with the South African appearing to have made peace with the potential loss of his crown.
“A few things in the race didn't feel so right as normal but tomorrow is another day and we can always reset, evaluate what went wrong,” Van der Burgh said.
“Nothing is perfect, you want it that way but it doesn't go that way, but now you sit down and redraw the next plan.”
During the afternoon’s heats Peaty smashed his own world record touching the wall in a time of 57.55 seconds.
Peaty slashed 0.37s off his previous world mark he set in April last year to lay day an early marker ahead the semi-finals.
Van der Burgh was aiming to join Peaty in the sub-58 club to give him a chance of reclaiming the gold medal.
“The goal is still to hopefully go 57 seconds in the final but we will see, the semi-final wasn't as great as we wanted it to be but I am still confident and still lying in a great place to win a medal,” he said.
“Obviously we are hoping for gold, and I’ve always said I do try my best, if I can do the best I can then that is what I deserve.
“If I swam my best race and got a silver medal then I deserve it so I am looking forward to the final.”
Although none of the country’s swimmers made it into the evening’s finals there was a South African flavour in the men’s 400m freestyle.
Australian Mack Horton, who went on to win the 400m freestyle title 3:41.55 is coached by South African Barcelona Olympian Craig Jackson.
A new South African record was not good enough as his time of 3:45.92 was only good enough for 12th place.
The country’s two 400m Individual Medley swimmers Michael Meyer and Sebastien Rousseau were well off the pace crashing out with two below-par performances.
For a brief moment it looked like Louis Meintjes win the country’s first cycling medal in 60 years but had to settle for a creditable seventh place in the men’s road race on his debut at the Rio Olympic Games on Saturday.
The plucky little rider reeled in the lead group on the final climb but could not sustain his impressive move in the sprint along Copacabana.
Menthes, who just three weeks ago became the highest South African finisher in the General Classification (GC) at this year's Tour de France, had to be content with seven place with Daryl Impey finished in 27th place.
“It was a really long and hot day and I think me and Daryl worked well together with what we had and our capabilities,” Meintjes said.
“Even for Daryl being in this race so late into the final supporting me was absolutely great.”
South Africa’s artistic gymnast Ryan Patterson failed to qualify for the next round of his competition. - Independent Media