Van der Burgh makes final splash
CAMERON van der Burgh bowed out of swimming in style with a 100m breaststroke gold medal at the World Short-Course Swimming Championships in China yesterday.
Van der Burgh, 30, announced his retirement after more than a decade in the sport.
The South African’s accolades include the 100m breaststroke gold at the London 2012 Olympics and more than a dozen world championship medals across both the long and short-course events.
He holds the world short-course 50m and 100m breaststroke records as well as both records in the 50-metre pool.
Van der Burgh boasts two world 50m breaststroke long-course titles while his recent heroics won him his third short-course gold to extend his tally to five world titles.
“I did make a commitment two years ago after the Olympics to transition from swimming, and I look forward to my next career and start to plan where I go,” he said.
“It means the world to me. It is my last race, so I am extremely happy. The world championship means a lot. It is the last one. It is sad but I am happy to end on a high.”
Van der Burgh married Nefeli Valakelis in Greece in July and has since relocated to London, where he will pursue a career as a hedge fund analyst.
Yesterday, the South African was in a class of his own as he led the race from start to finish to win the 100m breaststroke title – eight years after his maiden win in the event.
He touched the wall in a new championship record of 56.01 seconds, shaving 0.28 seconds off the previous mark.
Van der Burgh burst onto the international scene, aged 19, when he won the 50m breaststroke bronze medal at his first World Long-Course Championships in Melbourne in 2007.
He set his maiden world record at the South African Championships in 2009, before racing to his first major title at the World Long-Course Championships in Rome later that year.
His crowning glory came in London in 2012 when he won the 100m breaststroke title in a world record time of 58.46, taking 0.12 seconds off the previous mark.
Four years later, he became only the second man in the 100m breaststroke to earn a podium place at consecutive Olympics when he finished second behind world-record holder Adam Peaty.
Former world record-holder Kosuke Kitajima of Japan won gold in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008. See Page 32