The South African swimming contingent recorded a 10-medal haul at the penultimate leg of the Fina Swimming World Cup in Doha at the beginning of the week.
The country’s Olympic golden duo of Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh once again spearheaded the charge, producing seven of the total medals.
Le Clos bowed out of the two-day meet with four gold medals in the bag after winning the men’s 100m butterfly and freestyle, 50m and 200m butterfly events.
The 23-year-old was in sizzling form in the freestyle event where he posted a sub-49 second time for the victory.
Van der Burgh, who has been head and shoulders above the rest throughout the series, continued his dominance in Doha where he bagged his 12th and 13th gold medals.
He had already surpassed his career best 10 gold medals he won at his maiden series victory in 2008 and will add his third over the weekend.
The Pretoria-based swimmer leads the overall rankings with an unassailable 327 points with compatriot Le Clos behind him in second place on 129 points.
The 27-year-old once again shared the podium with his training partner Giulio Zorzi in the men’s 50m breaststroke with the duo finishing first and second, respectively.
Van der Burgh touched the wall first in a time of 26.96 seconds with Zorzi following in 27.69s while Kevin Cordes of the US bagged the bronze in 27.81s.
Moving up in distance Van der Burgh added the 200m breaststroke bronze medal to the two gold medals in the 50m and the 100m breaststroke.
Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta finished in first place with a time of 2:10.33 with Oleg Kostin of Russia winning the silver medal in 2:11.44 with Van der Burgh touching third in 2:12.14.
Michael Meyer also earned a podium spot finishing second in the men’s 200m individual medley behind Japan’s Keita Sunama.
Sunama posted a winning time of 2:00.48 with Meyer clocking 2:01.63 ahead of the third-placed David Verraszto of Hungary with 2:01.90.
Rounding off South Africa’s medal haul in Doha, Douglas Erasmus earned a third place in the splash-and-dash. Bruno Fratus of Brazil won the 50m freestyle with a time of 22.28 with Anthony Ervin of the US taking second place in 22.47 with Erasmus touching shortly behind him in 22.50.
The Swimming World Cup will come to a climax at the final leg in Dubai tomorrow and Saturday where a record number of swimmers will take to the pool.
Van der Burgh will come up against British nemesis Adam Peaty, who had his number in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke at the Fina World Long-course Championships in Kazan, Russia earlier this year, while the South African had to be content with silver in both events. - The Star