Gold and silver for Van der Burgh

Johannesburg – Cameron van der Burgh demonstrated his versatility in the first day of the Beijing leg of Fina World Cup on Tuesday winning gold and silver in the men’s 50m and 200m breaststroke events respectively.

Van der Burgh blasted to first place in his favoured 50m breaststroke winning the race in a time of 27.03 seconds.

His nearest rival Tommy Sucipto of Australia finished in a time of 27.79s with China’s Shi Weija touching in 28.00s.

Making the step-up in distance, Van der Burgh then added the silver medal in the 200m breaststroke to his growing tally.

Van der Burgh led through the first 100 metres before China’s Failin Mao moved past him to touch in 2:10.95, just ahead of the South African.

The Pretoria swimmer finished in second place posting 2:11.68 with China’s Zibei Yan rounding off the podium in 2:11.97.

The 27-year-old is currently leading the overall rankings and could add his third Swimming World Cup Series title after he won it for consecutive years in 2008 and 2009.