Cape Town – South African star Cameron van der Burgh has stunned the field in claiming gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke at the 14th FINA World Swimming short course Championship in Hangzhou, China on Wednesday.

Van der Burgh, swimming out of Lane 7, finished in a time of 56.01 to take victory ahead of Belarus’ Ilya Shymanovich (56.10) and Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki (56.13).

Van der Burgh’s time was a new Championship record, breaking the 56.29 mark set by Brazil’s Felipe França da Silva in Doha in 2014.

The victory was something of a surprise given that Van der Burgh was only ninth-fastest in the heats and sixth-quickest in the semi-finals.

Van der Burgh still holds the world record in the event (55.61), which he posted in Berlin a full nine years ago.

Van der Burgh, now 30, recently got married and relocated to London.

South African team in Hangzhou:

Men

Chad le Clos, Cameron van der Burgh, Brad Tandy, Ryan Coetzee, Ayrton Sweeney, Douglas Erasmus

Women

Erin Gallagher, Emily Visagie, Rebecca Meder