Cameron Van Der Burgh Sets 50M Breaststroke World Record: Highlights, Reaction

After losing out to Great Britain’s Adam Peaty in the final of the men’s 100-metre breaststroke earlier this week, Cameron van der Burgh responded in spectacular fashion in the shorter distance on Tuesday, lowering his own world record in the 50-meter breaststroke at the FINA World Swimming Championships.

The 27-year-old took to social media to express his delight afterwards:

As noted by the Associated Press (h/t yahoo.com), the South African star posted a time of 26.62 seconds in the heats for the event, knocking five-hundredths of a second off his six-year-old previous mark.

Here’s a look at Van Der Burgh’s sensational display:

This is the first men’s world record to fall at the championships in Kazan, with four women’s marks having already been bettered at the time of writing.

Encouragingly for Van Der Burgh, there will be opportunities to go even quicker in the one-length showpiece and the prospect of another duel against Peaty could spur the South African on to even quicker times. As noted in the aforementioned piece, the Brit has also swum a time of 26.62, in Berlin last year, but FINA didn't approve it because Peaty had not been tested for EPO.

MARTIN BUREAU/Getty Images

Although the 50m breaststroke is not an Olympic event, it’s one Van Der Burgh specialises in. The South African’s start, as we can see above, was sensational and if he can continue getting off the blocks just as quickly in the later rounds of this discipline, it will take another unprecedented time to get the better of Van Der Burgh.