Cameron van der Burgh misses out on gold

Leading from the start, the Olympic champion turned with a significant lead in 27.32 seconds, but England’s Adam Peaty had other ideas and drew level with 25 metres remaining.

It was then a stroke-by-stroke battle to the wall with the 19-year-old Englishman out-touching Van der Burgh by 0.34 seconds for a Games record of 58.94 seconds.

“It was a lot harder than last night. Tonight [Saturday] I just seized up over the last 25. It’s back to the drawing board,” said Van der Burgh.

“That’s how things go, you can’t always win. When I turned I thought I had it for sure. In the warm-up I was looking better than in the Olympics, but rather [that it happened] this year than any other year.

“It’s motivation to get working hard again and to get back to winning ways,” said Van Der Burgh.

He still has the 50m on Sunday and the medley relay, where the South African quartet have a good chance of winning gold if they can bring it all together.

Peaty has rewritten the Games record on each of his outings and is closing on Van der Burgh’s world mark of 58.46 set at the London Olympics.

Scotland’s Ross Murdoch took the bronze on Saturday in 59.47.

– Sapa