On form Van der Burgh powers to European victory

SHOWING no sign of slowing down, Rio Olympic silver medallist Cameron van der Burgh has distinguished himself as the country’s top swimmer at the first two legs of the Mare Nostrum Series in Europe.

Van der Burgh shone in the 50m breaststroke in Monaco over the weekend before continuing his good form in the sprint event in Barcelona this week.

Over the weekend Van der Burgh raced to his first gold medal of the international season when he finished first in the 50m breaststroke in a time of 26.99 seconds.

He added the Barcelona gold medal in the sprint event with the third fastest time in the world this year hitting the wall in a time of 26.96.

He was followed by Filipe Lima in 27.41 and Andrey Nikolaev with 27.42 in second and third place respectively.

While he had a disappointing swim in Monaco in the 100m breaststroke, Van der Burgh made up for it on the first day of the Barcelona leg when he touched second behind Russia’s Anton Chupkov, who posted a time of 59.39 seconds.

Van der Burgh touched the wall in a time of 1:00.02 which is slightly off his season’s best of 59.73 from the South African Championships in April.

In Monaco, Myles Brown also claimed a podium spot when he finished second in the 200m freestyle in a time of 1:48.31 with Great Britain’s James Guy winning in 1:47.27.

Brown repeated the result in Barcelona when he touched second behind Russia’s Aleksandr Krasnykh.

He posted a time of 1:48.07 with the Krasnykh finishing ahead of him in 1:47.39.

Rio Olympic double silver medalist Chad le Clos missed the first two legs of the threeleg series and will open his international season in Canet-en-Roussillon over the weekend.