Van der Burgh breaks world record

Cameron van der Burgh heated up a chilly morning at the swimming world championships yesterday by improving his own world record in the 50-metre breaststroke. The South African won his one-lap heat in 26.62 seconds, shaving five hundredths off his previous mark established in a now-banned rubberised suit at the 2009 worlds in Rome. Van der Burgh celebrated by propping himself up on a lane rope and pointing his arms up, then he bowed to the crowd and flexed his biceps after climbing out of the pool. It’s the first men’s world record to fall at this meet after four women’s marks were set on the opening two days. “It’s nice to be joining the ladies for a bit of the fun,” Van der Burgh said. Britain’s Adam Peaty also swam 26.62 at the European Championships in Berlin last August but that mark was not ratified by governing body FINA because he was not tested at the time for the blood-booster EPO. It was a simple administrative error because a box was not checked on the drug-testing form, FINA officials said. Peaty qualified second in 26.68, winning the last of nine heats. “Just went out there and had fun and didn’t take it that seriously,” Peaty said. Peaty came from behind to edge Van der Burgh for gold in the 100m breast on Monday but now Van der Burgh has shown he intends to hold on to his title in the 50m, which is not an Olympic event. “I had the luck of a good touch (yesterday),” Van der Burgh said. “I knew I had great speed from the first split of the 50m last night.” The session was held in an air temperature of about 15 Celsius at the Kazan Arena, where a temporary pool has been placed inside a football stadium. A roof placed over the pool is open on one side, letting the outside air in. The warm-up pool has no roof. American teenager Katie Ledecky kept up her impressive form by leading the 200m freestyle heats in 1:55.82, a day after she improved her world record in the marathon-like 1 500m - also in prelims. “I was pretty slow around the turns. Hopefully I can clean that up,” Ledecky said. Katinka Hosszu, who also set a world record on Monday, qualified second in 1:56.32. Defending champion Missy Franklin was third in 1:56.42 and world-record holder Federica Pellegrini advanced sixth in 1:57.34. Hungarian veteran Laszlo Cseh led the 200m butterfly in 1:53.71, while Olympic and defending champion Chad Le Clos only barely advanced in 14th, more than three seconds behind. Only the top 16 qualifiers made it to the semi-final. KAZAN-NAMPA/AP