Cameron gearing up for Rio

Cameron van der Burgh, Men 100 Breaststroke during the 2016 SA National Aquatic Championship Olympic at Kings Park Pool, Durban Kwa-Zulu Natal on 11 April 2016 ©Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix

Cameron van der Burgh, Men 100 Breaststroke during the 2016 SA National Aquatic Championship Olympic at Kings Park Pool, Durban Kwa-Zulu Natal on 11 April 2016 ©Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix

Published May 26, 2016

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Cape Town - On the dawn of lining up at his third Olympics, Cameron van der Burgh is set for his final month of competition on the European circuit during June.

The Olympic gold medallist will be jetting off for the first leg of the Mare Nostrum series in Monaco next weekend, and will not return to South Africa until after the Rio Games in August.

“I’m pretty excited, it is going to be awesome, it is the best time of the year going to Europe although it is a bit more serious being an Olympic year,” Van der Burgh said.

“You can’t compare racing in Europe to racing in South Africa, it is such a rush and quite awesome.”

Van der Burgh seems relaxed in his approach in a year where he should be feeling the pressures of defending his 100m breaststroke title at the Games.

“I will end up swimming for another four years because I do love it but I know after the next four years I am done so you start counting down,” Van der Burgh said.

“You never know when your time will be up so you just enjoy it while you are on top and swimming fast, and enjoying moments.”

He opened his season with the fourth fastest time this year in Stockholm in March when he clocked a season’s best of 59.61 seconds.

At the South African Swimming Championships in Durban he dipped below the Olympic qualifying time on three occasions with the greatest of ease.

While it is hardly anything new for the former world-record holder to produce world-class times in the 100m event, it was his performance in the 200m breastroke that came as somewhat of a surprise.

He posted a new personal best in the 200m breaststroke semi-final when he touched the wall in a time of 2:11.10 to add this event to his repertoire at the Olympics.

In the final Van der Burgh went one better stopping the clock less than a second short of the South African record with a time of 2:10.13.

Van der Burgh has over the last two to three years been flirting with the idea of adding the 200m breaststroke but could not get the balance right between the speed of the 100m and endurance of the longer event.

While the experiment did not initially have the required outcome, Van der Burgh seem to have found the formula.

“I’ve been saying that I wanted to swim the 200m for a long time, and it is more about finding the right training style for the 200m that works the best without sacrifice the 100m which is obviously my main event,” Van der Burgh said.

“We eventually found that out and it is going to help a lot with my 100m which is exciting and was cool to see at nationals.”

He will be participating in all three legs of the series that includes Canet en Roussillon on June 8 and 9, and Barcelona from June 11 to 12.

Independent Media

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