Van Niekerk fights nerves as she powers to Commonwealth gold: 'I knew it was close'

SA teen swimmer Lara van Niekerk admitted to freaking out before the final but held her nerve to clinch the 50m breaststroke crown at the Commonwealth Games on Saturday. 

Van Niekerk made history by beating her Commonwealth record and claiming Team South Africa's first gold medal in Birmingham.

The 19-year-old South African was impressive from start to finish, touching the wall with a Games record time of 29.73.

Rounding up the podium were Englishwoman Imogen Clark who took silver in 30.02 and Australian Chelsea Hodges who claimed bronze (30.05) from SA's Tatjana Schoenmaker, who finished fourth.

"When I touched the wall and the crowd cheered, I was like: 'Wow, I did it again?' But in the race, I knew it was close," said Van Niekerk after the win.

"Every time I took a breath, I just heard the noise of the crowd, so I knew they were close, so I just had to fight them off.

"I was racing against the clock, I knew I was going far ahead going into the final and I wanted to break the record again."

Van Niekerk admitted that she was in a bit of a panic leading up to the final as she tried to stay calm and control her nerves.

"I was freaking out, to be honest, I literally said to my coach, I'm freaking out, I'm going to explode," said Van Niekerk.

"I gave myself some time to watch some series and calm down. Your nerves get in the way, you're not going to perform as good as you want to, so I just took the day and spent it well.

"I calmed down the moment I went on to the pool, I knew I had done everything that I had to and I'm ready. The nerves were better when I went full-on racing."

Van Niekerk was cheered on by several South African swimmers and Team SA athletes and the capacity crowd at Sandwell Aquatics Centre.

"I haven't been racing