Cape Town - At last, the drought is over! Cameron van der Burgh broke the duck for Team South Africa with a fine swim to clinch a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke final on Monday morning (SA time).
Van der Burgh improved sizably from his semi-final effort to finish second in 58.69, but he was never going to challenge British star Adam Peaty for gold as the 21-year-old from Derby in England clocked an incredible new world record time of 57.13.
That shattered his previous mark of 57.55, which he had set in Saturday night’s semi-finals, as he ended more than 1.5 seconds ahead of the 28-year-old Van der Burgh.
Nevertheless, it was an excellent effort for the man from Pretoria, who got out of the blocks quickly and kept up with Peaty after the first lap. But the latter still led at the turn and surged ahead in the next 25 metres, leaving the field for dead.
It was now only a matter of by how much he would break the world record, and whether Van der Burgh could hold on for second place.
Peaty was ruthless in his execution as he glided through the water and touched the wall in 57.13, with Van der Burgh second in 58.69, not far off his previous world-record mark of 58.46. America’s Cody Miller took the bronze medal in 58.87.
But while Peaty was utterly devastating as he streaked ahead in the last 50 metres, Van der Burgh deserves all the plaudits for still being up for the fight and to grab a silver medal, having lost his appetite for the sport following the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Peaty, though, was utterly sensational, and having come so close to the sub-57-second mark in the final, he will be motivated to keep going and create history in the near future.
South Africa’s other gold medallist in the pool from the 2012 London Olympics, Chad le Clos, had a mixed night in the 200m freestyle semi-finals, along with Myles Brown.
The first semi-final saw Brown fall out of the running for a final place as he ended sixth in 1:46.57, with American Conor Dwyer winning in 1:45.55.
Le Clos – who won gold in the 200m butterfly at the 2012 London Olympics by memorably beating American legend Michael Phelps, and claimed silver in the 100m butterfly – is trying his hand at the freestyle for a possible extra medal.
But he went out of the blocks way too quickly, and despite leading after 150m, the 24-year-old ran out of steam in the closing stages to finish fifth in 1:45.94 as Chinese star Sun Yang won in a blisteringly quick 1:44.63, making him the only finalist under 1:45.
However, all that matters is that Le Clos made it to the final (Tuesday morning 3.21am SA time) as the seventh-fastest qualifier.
The other South African in action on the night, Christopher Reid, was unable to advance to the final of the 100m backstroke as he ended fifth in the semi-final in 53.70.