South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh broke the African record in the men’s 50m breaststroke at the Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.
He broke one of the oldest records in the swimming history books when he completed the race in 27,49 seconds. The 18-year-old could not improve on his time in the evening’s semifinal, but qualified for the final in 27,99 seconds — the fourth fastest time.
”I’ll have a good rest and a bit of a rub tomorrow [Wednesday], so that I can prepare myself for the final,” said Van der Burgh.
”This meet is turning out to be pretty special for me, as I am very happy with the times I have swum. I must say, I was quite nervous before the semifinal, but the nerves settled once I was in the water.”
Gerhard Zandberg was in action in the final of the men’s 100m backstroke, but could not get close to Aaron Piersol of the United States, who set a world record of 52,98, becoming the first man to swim the distance in under 53 seconds.
Zandberg finished in sixth place, in 54,59 seconds.
”I am very happy with my time,” he said. ”This is the third time I have swum under the 55 second mark, and this means it was not just a fluke. Before these championships, I was in the 30th spot in the world rankings, and I have now moved to sixth place.”
Zandberg said his performance meant that the 4-by-100 medley relay was going to be a good race.
”With me and Cameron swimming good times here, we could actually do quite well in the relay, which will be great,” he added.
Three other South Africans were in action on Tuesday. Thabang Moeketsane finished 29th in the 50m breaststroke in 28,78 seconds, George du Rand finished 30th in the 200m butterfly in 2:01,78, and Wendy Trott finished 36th in the 200m freestyle in 2:03,09 — Sapa