Cameron van der Burgh and Darian Townsend kept the SA flag flying high in the world of short course swimming, as they produced meet record performances on the second and final evening of the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup in Stockholm, Sweden on Wednesday.

Van der Burgh - the world record-holder in the 50 and 100 metres breaststroke - bettered his meet record from 56.36 secs set at the World Cup leg in Moscow over the weekend, to its new mark of 56.17.

National team-mate Neil Versfeld, who set a meet record in the 200 metres breaststroke the night before, finished second to Van der Burgh in 56.55.

KwaZulu-Natal-based Townsend's fine form on the short course circuit continued as he clocked a World Cup best of 1:51.79 in the 200 metres individual medley - dipping under the previous meet record time of Tunisian Oussama Mellouli (1:52.41) and merely 0.23 seconds shy of the record held by Ryan Lochte from the USA.

Townsend's time was inside his own African mark of 1:52.93. Durban-based Chad le Clos placed sixth in 1:55.73.

Townsend's time was good enough to force American Olympic sensation Michael Phelps to settle for the silver medal in 1:53.93.

This was Phelps' second defeat in Stockholm by a South African after Gerhard Zandberg beat the American in the 100 metres individual medley 24 hours earlier.

Townsend also rewrote the African record-books in the 200 metres freestyle with his silver medal-winning time of 1:41.99 being faster than his previous continental mark of 1:42.01.

Frenchman Frederick Bousquet took gold in the 50 metres freestyle in 20.64 - to better Roland Schoeman's meet record of 20.88 set in the gala showpiece in Moscow, Russia on November 7. In this evening's race, Schoeman finished second in 20.81.

George du Rand finished third in the 200 metres backstroke in 1:48.95, while Durbanite Kathryn Meaklim - who set a SA record in the 200 metres individual medley yesterday - ended second in the 400 metres individual medley in 4:28.23.

Zandberg ended fifth in the 50 metres backstroke in 23.38, while Mandy Loots finished fifth in the 200 metres butterfly (2:07.75).