Cameron van der Burgh won South Africa’s first medal at the Olympic Games in Rio on Sunday (early Monday, SA time) when he finished second in the 100 metre breaststroke.
The final played out to be a classic scenario of brute strength and speed versus pure guts, with Britain’s Adam Peaty and Van der Burgh the two main protagonists. It was Peaty who prevailed in the end, winning in a world record time of 57.13 seconds. Van der Burgh was second in 58.69s and Cody Miller of the USA third in 58.87s.
Before the race, Van der Burgh (Tuks/HPC) predicted: “It is going to take a world record to win the gold medal at the Games.”
The South African’s prediction proved to be spot on.
Peaty must have taken Van der Burgh’s words to heart. He gave an awesome display of power and dominated the race as it has seldom been done at the Games. The Brit opened his campaign by winning his heat in a world record time of 57.55s. In the semifinals, he just missed setting another world record by winning in 57.62s.
In the final Peaty immediately took the lead by being the fastest out of the starting blocks. He never relented and, stroke by stroke, he pulled away from his competitors throughout the race to win by a body length. It has been quite a few years since an Olympic 100m final (for any stroke) has been won by more than a second.
The Tuks/HPC swimmer deserves to be complimented for the dogged way in which he fought right up to the finish to take the silver medal.
“I can’t say I’m disappointed,” said Van der Burgh, the defending champion and gold medallist of four years ago, in a television interview.
“Coming into the final, I knew I didn’t have a 57-second in me. I have a few issues with my stroke and I’m not connecting properly with the kick and pull. But I also knew that if Adam made some mistakes I’d be right there.
“He didn’t and well done to him, it was an incredible swim by him. But silver is a nice colour too and I’m super proud to add it to my collection.”
Van der Burgh complimented Peaty on his performance.
“Peaty is a great competitor. We have had a great rivalry going over the past three years and I can honestly say that he has spurred me on.
“Together we have taken breaststroke to new heights. If we had told somebody beforehand that we would be swimming these times I don’t think he would have believed us. We have pushed each other and learned from each other,” said the Tuks/HPC swimmer.
Chad le Clos has qualified for the 200m freestyle final, swimming 1:45.94. China’s Sun Yang set the fastest time in the semifinals, clocking 1:44.63.
South Africa’s Myles Brown could only finish 6th in his semifinal, swimming 1:46.78. – African News Agency (ANA)
