Johannesburg - Olympic and Commonwealth champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa made it a full house of breaststroke medals at the Fina World Cup meet in Bejing on Wednesday.
After winning gold and silver in the 50/200-metre events on Tuesday he added the 100m breaststroke title in final day action. After leading Australian Tommy Sucipto by 0.15sec at the turn, he went on to clock 59.76sec for the win.
China's Zibei Yan finished strongly for second in 1:0057 while Sucipto took bronze in 1:01.16. His third medal at this leg of the series saw the Pretoria swimmer increase his lead in the overall men's World Cup rankings. Chad le Clos, who did not travel to China, is in second place. Van der Burgh later told the meeting website: “(This is a) very good time, the world leading time. It's a good place to start the season. The competition is very tough as the Chinese swimmers are very fast, pushing me to swim fast.”
“I feel tired after last night's 200m. So I can relax and rest for Singapore (the next leg). I'm a champion in breaststroke, it's special and technical and difficult. I (constantly) work on technical aspects and watch the videos and see where I can improve my strokes.” The Singapore leg will be contested on Saturday and Sunday. - ANA