Cameron’s new style ‘getting better and better’
JOHANNESBURG: Olympic gold medallist Cameron van der Burgh once again proved his class as he raced to his 11th consecutive national 100m breaststroke title, posting the second fastest time in the world this year yesterday.
Van der Burgh, pictured, dipped below the world qualifying time for the second time at the South African Swimming Championships in Durban, as he touched the wall in a time of 59.73 seconds.
Turning slightly slower than the night before, Van der Burgh had a faster final 50 metres which he put down to a new technique he has been working on with new coach Andrea di Nino.
“I’m stoked, with the amount of work I’ve put in, it is encouraging, I’ve been looking to try this new style for a while and (it) feels like it is paying off and with each race it feels like it is getting better and better,” Van der Burgh said.
“The main thing for me is to hit that sweet spot of the stroke, the first 50 metres will be hard because I haven’t done that speed racing.
“You almost have to swim at a speed where you are energy efficient and you are not fighting the water.”
Threatening to make her breakthrough, Tatjana Schoenmaker could become the first female swimmer since 2013 to qualify for the Fina World Championships after she clocked a new personal best in the 100m breaststroke yesterday. She posted the fastest time in the semi-finals with a new PB of 1:07.99, just 0.41secs short of the world qualifying standard.
Schoenmaker missed last year’s Olympics by the narrowest of margins in her specialist 200m breaststroke event, while she has already dipped below the qualifying mark this year.
Dipping below 1:08 for the first time in the 100m breaststroke, Schoenmaker allowed for a glimmer of hope, that she could qualify in the shorter distance in tonight’s final, to enter her mind.
“I broke through 1:08 for the first time, and that is really good, I’m obviously not swimming at my best yet,” Schoenmaker said.
“Now that I know I can go below that I can go for it, I was a bit tense the last 15 metres but we will try and work on that for tomorrow.”
The 19-year-old went faster than the 200m breaststroke qualifying time when she posted a new PB of 2:24.93, chopping a second and a half off her previous top time.
Schoenmaker just missed out on the Rio Olympics at last year’s trials, when she touched the wall 0.01 short of the qualifying mark.
Rio Olympian Myles Brown looked relieved as he got the world 200m freestyle qualifying time out of the way, posting the fastest time of the evening’s semi-finals in 1:47.51.
Brown’s time launched him into fifth place on the world rankings list, while Le Clos advanced to tonight’s final with the second fastest time of 1:49.47.
“This year I am changing the focus a bit, easing into the year, I didn’t enter the 400m free, but I didn’t really know what to expect coming into this week, so to get a qualifying time, I am really happy,” Brown said.