Cameron van den Burgh, Tatjana Schoenmaker and Chad le Clos all won gold medals in the pool.

The veteran, Van der Burgh, caused a huge upset by beating England’s world record holder, Adam Peaty in the 50m breaststroke for men in a new Commonwealth Games record.

Van den Burgh touched the wall in 26.48 sec to a gold medal to the bronze he won in the 100m breaststroke for men earlier at the games.

Minutes later, the new South African queen of breaststroke, the 20-year-old Tatjana Schoenmaker, of Johannesburg set a new African record in winning gold in the womens’ 100m breaststroke in 1:06.41 to add to her 200m gold. While she was the fastest qualifier the local swimmer, Georgia Bohl, was tipped to clinch the gold.

Chad le Clos who his fourth medal at the games by winning the 100m butterfly for men’s in a blistering time for 50.65 sec for what was also a games record.

Le Clos clinched his third gold of the games by touching the wall in 0.66 sec ahead of England’s James Guy. The Australian, Grant Irvine, took the bronze in 51.50 sec. Le Clos has full house of golds with wins in the 50, 100 and 200m butterfly. He has a total of 16 Commonwealth Games medals in his collection throughout his career.

Earlier in the day, Christian Sadie, claimed the silver in the S7 50m freestyle in 29.66 sec. He was beaten to the wall in 1.05 sec by the Australian, Matthew Levy. Wei Soong Toh of Singapore rounded off the podium with the bronze in 29.83 sec.

South Africa now boasts with a total of ten medals in the pool. Earlier in the games Ryan Coetzee won the bronze in the men’s 50m butterfly.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport