With all eyes on Great Britain's Liam Tancok, who set a new world record of 24.08 in the morning's semifinal, and 100m champion Japanese ace Junya Koga swimming out of lane 4 and 5 respectively, it was Zandberg the defending champion, who was fastest off the wall.

At the halfway stage it was too close to call. Zandberg lurked.

Going into the wall the powerfully built Tancock surged to claim the title in a new world mark of 24.04, well ahead of Koga on 24.24 and Zandberg on 24.34.

"There is no 50m backstroke event at the Olympic Games, so I will be working on my 100m backstroke swimming as well and have already warned Tancock and Koga that I will be chasing them down during the next year," said Zandberg afterwards.

"I have not been training as much as I should have been between last year's Beijing Olympics and these World Championships. I plan on going to Germany some time in the next few months to train with my former coach Dirk Lange.

"For now, I am just over the moon. I had a good start to the race, but those overhead backstroke flags towards the end of the 50m couldn't come quick enough. I am just so happy to get a medal."

Zandberg's time was inside his previous best of 24.68 set in the heats and semifinals and took the African record tally of times bettered by the South African contingent at the world championships to 20.

So as the curtain comes down on the 13th Fina World Swimming Championships, it is now time to reflect on performances, not only of the SA athletes but of those who administer and coach the sport.

While there are concerns with performances of some of the more senior athletes in the squad, the emergence of ‘the young guns’ has been encouraging and confirms the depth of talent in South African swimming.

But will one gold medal and three bronze medals be enough?

If one takes into account that three of those medals were gained in non-Olympic events (the 5km open water, 50m breaststroke and 50m backstroke), then the cupboard is actually rather bare.

So as the sands of time move towards 2012, the domestic aquatics fraternity will look at developments with great interest as to what transpires in the lead-up to what is without a doubt the pinnacle of any swimmer's carreer, the Olympic Games.

Most of the athletes and coaches will only have a short time to ponder on these concerns as the SA Short Course Championships get under way at the Jolliffe Pool in Pietermaritzburg on Friday, with most of the world championships participants expected to be in attendance.

Source:  supersport.co.za