iafrica.com's Rob Peters spoke exclusively to Cameron van der Burgh after the South African swimming sensation took gold ? and shattered his own world record ? in the 50-metre breaststroke at the FINA World Championships on Wednesday.

It has been a while since South African swimming has enjoyed such success. Since the men's relay team triumphed in Athens more than eight years ago, SA fans have had little to cheer about, but all that changed in Italy this week with Cameron van der Burgh raising the flag at the FINA World Championships in Rome.

After claiming bronze in the 100-metre breaststroke on Tuesday ? South Africa's first medal in the pool ? Van Der Burgh went on to claim gold, and shatter the world record, in the 50-metre breaststroke last night.

Since then, the likeable 21-year-old has been bombarded with interview requests so I jumped at the chance to have a quick chat with him.

"I am feeling over the moon! Absolutely blessed? I have to admit I didn't get much sleep last night and I needed about 10 espressos just to get started this morning," laughed an overjoyed Van Der Burgh when asked about his record-breaking swim.

Interestingly, Van Der Burgh is the first African locally-trained swimmer to hold a world record in the pool. Those who came before him generally opted to train abroad where facilities are considered superior to those in SA. But for the Pretoria-based Van Der Burgh, home is clearly where the heart is.

"The grass is not always greener on the other side, and I guess I proved that," he says.

"We do have the facilities ? and the coaches ? available in South Africa and if you stick with the programme you can definitely achieve the results.

"Look, training abroad definitely works for some swimmers, but I just love SA so much that I couldn't train overseas. I love waking up to 5FM, biltong? I am just happiest at home. And I always say 'a happy swimmer is a successful swimmer.'"

At 21, he is still regarded as a young prospect for SA swimming. So who else should local fans be keeping an eye on in the pool?

"Sebastien Rousseau did really well to qualify in the final of the 200-metre butterfly, Chad de Kock is another young swimmer who is doing big things and Charl van Zyl in the backstroke is looking good. Hopefully they can all follow my lead ? the future is looking very bright."

Apart from setting the international swimming world alight, Van Der Burgh is also studying part-time, after initially giving the University of Pretoria a go. But the demands of an international athlete are high ? so how does he hold it all together?

"I am actually at Unisa now after giving University a try, and the self-study aspect has definitely helped," he admits.

"My brother, who is already qualified, is also able to sit down with me and teach me if I am struggling with it at all.

"I am really lucky because I have such a great support system, which is so important for an athlete, with my brother and my parents providing me with awesome support."

So what is next for the champion swimmer?

"Take over the world! World domination!"

"No, seriously, I just want to keep improving. I have been working really hard, and if I keep my head down, I can achieve the desired results. I won bronze two years ago at the world championships in Melbourne, and have now won gold. I have also just started focussing on the 100m breaststroke and picked up bronze here (on Tuesday). I really enjoy surprising people and I am absolutely loving it at the moment!"

There are, however, still the current World Championships in Rome, and Van Der Burgh is not quite finished with that yet either.

"I have the medley relay on Sunday ? and while I don't want to promise anything," he laughs, "anything is possible in the relay.

"If we all get a good split and one of the other teams doesn't, who knows what could happen? You can never rule us out."