Giulio Zorzi out to join Cameron van der Burgh on podium

There is always the possibility of a shark attack in the pool if one happens to be in the water with training partners Giulio Zorzi and Cameron van der Burgh.

That's the term for when seniors target a hapless junior, nabbing him in the pool and then separating him from his costume.

Zorzi, 27, and his long-time friend Van der Burgh, 28, have been swimming with and against each other since before they were 10, but now they go to war together one final time, at the world short-course championships in Canada from Tuesday to Sunday.

The business in the water is serious, but outside they make time for fun.

"We've got in trouble for pranking people [over the years]," Zorzi reminisced at the Tuks pool where they train together in Pretoria. "We do lots of stuff actually. It makes the squad a lot more fun."

The shark attack has been around since the old days. "When we were laaities, the seniors used to do it to us. All the senior guys come for you and take your Speedo off and they throw it outside or they don't give it back to you.

"We've done that to some guys. Boys will be boys. We get up to mischief but nothing malicious, just innocent fun."

Zorzi is hoping that this week he will once again join Van der Burgh on the podium, as he did at the 2013 world long-course championships in Barcelona.

Then he blitzed the 50m breaststroke in a personal best 27.04sec to steal third place by one-hundredth of a second. Van der Burgh bagged gold by one-hundredth of a second.

Then they stood atop the podium together, arms around each other, singing the anthem.

"That's the highlight of my career. To share that experience together, and also for me, personally, just scraping into the final in eighth place and then getting third was really special."

Zorzi has never been to an Olympics or a Commonwealth Games, having missed out on Rio this year after suffering a freak injury to his right knee after being tackled by an "over-eager" youngster in January.

He had a quick repair job done, with a synthetic ligament surgically inserted, but he needs to go under the knife again for a more permanent solution in the near future, which most likely will end his swimming.

Zorzi, ranked fifth in the world in the 50m breaststroke, is looking forward to his final outing with Van der Burgh.

For fun, they are considering hopping across the river border to the motor-capital of Detroit to rent a Mustang car.

Zorzi, a civil engineer, admits he was under-training and performing below his potential before Van der Burgh asked him to come work out with him.

"I was not fulfilling my potential. We started training together and it was a lot higher level than I was in terms of fitness. I had to chase a lot and then after a year or so I started to push him when I caught up."

Having just project-managed the building of his first bridge, a rail crossing over a road, he is looking forward to his career with few regrets over what he might have achieved as a swimmer.

"I got an engineering degree from my path so I'm not upset about it.

"But it's always nice to be first."

sports@timesmedia.co.za