Stars shine at FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup: Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Part 12
After the laudable efforts of Darian Townsend and Chad le Clos in the Men’s 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly respectively, the audience was delighted to have South African swimmer, Cameron van der Burgh on the pool deck for 100m breaststroke.
Van der Burgh, who is the Olympic champion and owns the world record of the 100m discipline, was deliberately slow in the preliminary rounds of the event. The South African swimmer entered the playoff as seventh fastest swimmer and was allotted first lane of the pool.
The world record holder was contented with his qualification effort. He stressed that he is not in good form and thus it would be great for him to stay out of the sight of his competitors. After the qualification rounds of the race, van der Burgh said, "I’m not in great shape so it’s better to be on the outside. It’s hard to defend the lead when I’m not in shape, if I’m leading from the outside the others don’t see me so I prefer it”.
Glenn Snyders of New Zealand, who made his way into the playoff looked confident on the starting blocks and was eager to prove his supremacy for the title of the short course event.
With his quickest response to the start, van der Burgh gained a prominent lead over his opponents in the first half. He continued his relentless efforts in the second round and proved his mettle for gold medal of the event by producing an effort of 58.33 seconds.
Van der Burgh’s gruelling pace remained comfortably slower from his own world record of the event but was enough to overpower his challengers. He stayed nearly 2.70 seconds slower from his own world mark of 55.61 seconds, van der Burgh made in 2009.
The champion was extremely delighted with his top finish in the event and articulated that he is glad he sustained the top spot after the Olympic Games. He praised his strongest opponent Snyders by saying that he is a good swimmer and he had to push it really hard to surpass him.
While expressing happiness over his victory, van der Burgh said, “I went out nice and fast and the guys didn’t see me out there, (in Lane 1) and I was lucky enough to hold on for the win. It’s great to be racing again, I love racing and it’s a great environment, and it’s nice to have a break from the media pressure after the Olympics.”
Snyders remained marginally slower from overwhelming the world mark holder as he finished just behind him in second place. The Kiwi swimmer stayed just an inch away from his former finisher and occupied second position of the race by submitting a time of 58.42 seconds.
Subsequently, he enjoyed a benefit of half body length over Marco Koch of Germany, who was lucky to overpower his following swimmer for third position. Koch was half body length away from his foregoing finisher and tapped the wall for third position by clocking a time of 58.90 seconds.
Koch experienced strong battle from Neil Versfeld of South Africa from the start but managed to outperform him over the finishing blockade for third position. Versfeld stayed just a fraction away from his preceding swimmer and ended fourth with an effort of 58.91 seconds.
To be continued in Part 13.
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