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Van der Burgh pulled out all the stops in the final of the men’s 100m breaststroke at the Olympic stadium, producing the second fastest swim of his life – 58.69sec – which saw him chase home Adam Peaty, the British wonderkid who sped to his second world record in three swims, this time a 57.13.

Van der Burgh surfaced from the dive with Peaty before the Brit edged ahead and turned in 26.61, some 0.08sec quicker than when timing 57.55 in the heats. Van der Burgh was met by a wall of challengers inside the last 50, but was determined to hold on, even if he couldn’t get to Peaty.

The South African admitted that he came into the race with some pressure – “of course I feel it, you put pressure on yourself and also there’s a lot of expectation on me and Chad to get medals, so I’m glad I got the ball rolling. This is something to build on and things can only get better for Team South Africa.”

SA Team’s Opening Ceremony Outfits Voted BEST at the Olympics!

While South Africans at home seemed to hate their Olympic team’s outfits worn at the opening ceremony of the Games in Rio… it appears the rest of the world LOVED them, with South Africa featuring in several Top 10 lists for BEST dressed team!

South Africans tweeted up a storm of complaints after watching the Ceremony on TV. Sports journalist Graeme Joffe wrote: “Cheap, nasty tracksuits for an opening ceremony is an irony of how Olympic sport is run in SA.”

Turns out the retro look was quite popular with fashionistas around the globe. Even though other countries used top designers – Ralph Lauren for the USA (at a whopping $1,512.50), Christian Louboutin for Cuba, Lacoste for France, Giorgio Armani for Italy, and Stella McCartney for Great Britain – it was South Africa’s tracksuits that attracted the most attention!

In fact Fox Sports in Australia voted South Africa top of their Top 5 Best Dressed list, and put Ralph Lauren’s USA in its Top 5 Worst list.