59.7 Van Der Burgh At South African Nats: “I’m At 60% Preparation”

2017 SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL AQUATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Monday, April 3rd – Saturday, April 8th
• Kings Park Pool, Durban, South Africa
• LCM
• Event Schedule
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

While competing at the 2017 South African National Championships in Durban, 28-year-old Cameron van der Burgh clocked a super swift 100m breaststroke time of 59.73 to take his 11th national title in the event. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the event had already notched a FINA A cut last night in the semi-finals of the race, earning a solid mark of 1:00.07, but delivered a gold medal-winning result well beneath the minute barrier to check-in as the 2nd fastest swimmer worldwide this season.

Post-race, van der Burgh told SwimSwam that he is ‘excited’ with tonight’s performance, especially in light of a huge year of changes. VDB, a longtime native of Pretoria, uprooted to Capetown, training under Bobby Hurley as part of the Andrea Di Nino project. Of the new coaching arrangement, VDB says, “the new program with Bobby is proving fruitful. It’s great to collaborate with someone who shares the same excitement, same willingness to try new things.”

The South African calls his and Hurley’s program as a ‘blending of ideas’ from seasoned racer van der Burgh’s own expertise along with Hurley’s extensive training from his Club Wolverine Elite days in America, as well as his national team training in his home country of Australia.

Headed into Durban, VDB says his preparation is at a “60% level compared to what he normally would be at this point in the year”. He commented that, “coming off of World Championships [short course] in December, I was about 8-9k (~19 lbs) over my racing weight”. As such, tonight’s time, which secured van der Burgh’s 6th World Championships appearance, was notably encouraging.