Publications
Partners
The reigning World Record holder and 2009 World Champion finished third in the final heat of the men’s 50m breaststroke in a comfortable 27.58sec. Ahead of him was Damir Dugonjic (Slovenia) in 27,47sec and USA’s Mark Gangloff in 27.49sec.
Van der Burgh ended in seventh place overall with Felipe Franca Da Silva (Brazil) taking the top position after winning the previous heat in 27,19sec. For Tuesday night's second semi-final, the South African star will line-up next to the man who won his heat, Dugonjic, together with gold medallist in the 100m breaststroke, Alexander Dale Oen (Norway), and the overall leader from Brazil.
The men’s 200m butterfly followed where young Chad le Clos lived up to expectations by advancing through to the semi-finals. Le Clos was also comfortable to record splits of 25.85sec and 30.06sec to turn in 55.91sec at the halfway mark. The 200m butterfly short course World Champion then turned in a 30.00sec third 50m followed by a 30.46sec final leg to touch in 1:56.37.
Le Clos ended 3rd behind Biczo Bence from Hungary who clocked 1:55.71 for the third place overall while Clary Scott (USA) was second ahead of Le Clos for the fourth place overall in 1:55.95.
The next heat was slower than expected with World Champion and record holder Michael Phelps looking rather heavy to win his heat in 1:56.77 - ending only in 11 th place overall. China’s Peng Wu was close to Phelps in 1:56.98 with some great crowd support.
Sebastien Rousseau was in the final heat and perhaps paid the price for taking the first 100m out a little too hard. The University of Florida student looked solid with a 54.87sec start, but lost ground on the final 50m to end seventh in 1:57.15 – ending in 17 th place to just miss the semifinal.
Austrian Dinko Jukic won the final heat and took the overall top spot in 1:55,26 with Brazilian Leonardo De Deus next in 1:55.55.
Although Karin Prinsloo only ended 25 th overall in the women’s 200m freestyle with another sound personal best performance. The Tuks student finished really well o the final 50m to break the magical two minute barrier for the first time ever, clocking 1:59.52.
The men’s 800m freestyle was not the best for Heerden Herman and Mark Randall, both perhaps putting the pressure on a little early in the race. Herman clocked 8:01.79 for 18 th overall while Randall touched in 8:02.45 for 20 th place.
Tunisian Oussama Melluoli ended 5 th for the final of the 800m freestyle on Wednesday with a time of 7:48.86.
