Cameron back in the swim

Cameron van der Burgh has got his mojo back.

After a disappointing 2014, the Olympic 100m breaststroke champion said he was enjoying the sport so much he was thinking of going until the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

"I feel rejuvenated," Van der Burgh, 26, said in an interview yesterday.

"I really feel like I'm enjoying swimming a lot. Initially I thought I might retire after 2016 [the Rio Olympics] but I'm enjoying it so much. I feel like, comfortably, I could go on to 2020."

Van der Burgh is his bubbly self again, a welcome change after the desperate face he presented at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where he was dethroned in the 100m by Englishman Adam Peaty.

Even after winning the 50m gold a few days later Van der Burgh still seemed down in the dumps.

"Last year was a tough year for me," he admitted, saying he was hindered by an injury to his left shoulder. Plus he had lost his mojo.

"We had the MRI scans at the village before I swam and they didn't want to tell me because it was so bad."

Mentally, he was unable to get excited before the races.

"I didn't feel the pressure. I swim on a lot of emotion, the excitement, the nerves that get me pumped up and I felt I was at less of a stress level [at Commonwealth] than nationals that year."

But Van der Burgh spoke to his sport psychologist and by the time he went to the world short-course championships, he had that old feeling again.

He returns to competition in Durban next weekend at the second grand prix gala, where he intends competing in the 100m breaststroke and all four 50m sprints - even backstroke, his worst stroke.

Van der Burgh, who holds the world 100m short-course and long-course records and the 50m short-course mark, would like to reclaim the 50m long-course record that Peaty broke last year.

"I would like to still hold the four. That record was very outdated. I really expected it to be broken - it's nice motivation to try to get it back."