Cape Town - South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh lowered the Commonwealth Games 100m breaststroke record for the third time in two days on Wednesday, holding off the former and world record holder for gold.

The 22-year-old touched first in 1:00.10 ahead of Australia's Christian Sprenger and Brenton Rickard, who picked up silver and bronze.

The two-length race was one of the most keenly-watched of the competition after Sprenger and New Zealand's Glenn Snyders both lowered the Games record in the qualifiers and semis.

Sprenger first laid down the gauntlet on Tuesday with a 1:00.61 swim in the heats, only to see the Kiwi teenager take it to 1:00.55 in the first semi-final. Snyder then hit back in his semi-final, posting 1:00.45.

Van der Burgh was second-fastest qualifier for the final with Snyders third.

But Snyders could only manage sixth in the final after 200m world record holder Sprenger pushed Van der Burgh all the way and world record holder Rickard came up in lane one.

Van der Burgh's victory was South Africa's third gold medal in the pool.