Cameron van der Burgh bounced back in spectacular fashion to give SA its fourth gold medal of the world short-course swimming championships in Canada on Sunday night. After failing to advance past the heats of the 100m breaststroke early in the week‚ Van der Burgh produced his finest in the final session of the gala‚ obliterating the field in the 50m breaststroke. His 25.64sec effort was just one-hundredth of a second outside the championship record belonging to Brazilian Felipe Franca Silva‚ who ended joint fifth in 26.13 alongside Van der Burgh’s mate and training partner‚ Giulio Zorzi. The duo had shared the 50m breaststroke podium at the 2013 world long-course championships in Barcelona‚ where Van der Burgh had taken gold and Zorzi bronze. But it was not to be in Canada‚ and for good reason. Zorzi’s right knee was a mess — the synthetic cartilage inserted surgically early in the year snapped completely during training recently.
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