Cameron van der Burgh dished out some payback to world record holder Adam Peaty of Great Britain in the men’s 50 metre breaststroke on the first day of the final leg of the Fina Swimming World Cup in Dubai yesterday.
The Olympic gold medalist remains unbeaten in the 50m breaststroke in the series, while it was the first time he managed to get the upper hand over Peaty since conceding his title at the world championships in Kazan, Russia, earlier this year.
Peaty has been Van der Burgh’s nemesis since toppling the South African in the 100m breaststroke at last year’s Commonwealth Games and breaking his long-course world records over both distances.
Van der Burgh posted a blistering 26.77 seconds, which was 0.15sec slower than the personal best he set at this year’s world champs.
The Briton touched in 27.16 with Van der Burgh’s training partner Giulio Zorzi bagging the bronze in 27.45.
The Pretoria-based swimmer will finish the World Cup as the overall series winner for the third time after he won back-to-back series titles in 2008 and 2009.
While Van der Burgh sizzled, defending series champion and compatriot Chad le Clos suffered a rare defeat in his pet event, the 200m butterfly, and had to be content with the silver medal.
Le Clos characteristically left it late and with a lap left, looked set to miss out on a podium spot but surged towards the end for second place in 1min 56.03sec.
Denmark’s Viktor Bromer out-touched Le Clos by the narrowest of margins for a winning time of 1:55.98 with Wen Quah of Singapore third in 1:56.26.
Earlier, Le Clos won the silver medal in the 100m freestyle with a time of 48.38 with France’s Jeremy Stravius hitting the wall 0.04sec ahead of the South African.
Serbia’s Velimir Stjepanovic bagged the bronze medal in 48.86 while Le Clos’ compatriots Doug-las Erasmus and Caydon Muller shared seventh place after touching in 49.78.
The 23-year-old Le Clos persisted and finally won gold in the butterfly sprint in 23.31 in the 50m event.
Giles Smith of the US followed in second place in 23.67 with Serbia’s Ivan Lender finishing in third place in 23.74.
Le Clos, who is in heavy training ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, won four gold medals at the Doha leg earlier this week.
Meanwhile, Michael Meyer also added to the South African contingent’s medal tally by claiming the bronze medal in the men’s 400m individual medley in a time of 4:18.58.
Hungary’s David Verraszto finished first in 4:16.71 with Keita Sunama of Japan grabbing the silver with 4:17.58. Ayrton Sweeney, Joshua Dannhauser and Le Clos’ younger brother Jordan finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. - Saturday Star