Chad le Clos takes gold in 200m Butterfly at FINA Champs
Van der Burgh confirms legendary status again
HE bided his time, and Chad le Clos swam his best race of the world championships to reclaim his 200m butterfly title in Budapest last night. The Hungarian crowd cheered on their two swimmers, Laszlo Cseh and Tamas Kenderesi, but they were relegated to second and fourth positions as the South African showed resolve even as Cseh closed on him over the second 100m of the race.
On Tuesday night Le Clos had led for most of the race in his semi-final before being out-touched by Cseh. On reflection, the South African must have been conserving his energy for last night’s final.
The 200m butterfly world title had belonged to Le Clos for a while after he took gold at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and the 2013 world championships in Barcelona.
Then came a swing in fortunes, as first Cseh won the four-length race at the 2015 champs in Kazan, followed by American Michael Phelps taking gold in the event at the Rio Olympics last year.
Last night, though, with his fastest time since winning gold at the London Games, Le Clos made an emphatic return to the top step of the podium.
He posted a time of 1:53.33 to put behind him the defeats of 2015 and 2016.
Le Clos went out flying like the night before but instead of slowing down like he did in his semi-final he kept the hammer down to touch first. Cseh followed shortly behind him in second place, clocking 1:53.72 with Japan’s Daiya Seto rounding off the podium for third in 1:54.21.
The South African’s first 100 metres in which he had a 0.75sec advantage over Cseh, proved to be decisive,as he covered the final two laps slightly slower than the Hungarian. An emotional Le Clos then looked up at the clock as the disappointment from the last two years dissipated to make way for pure joy.
After conceding his world title in the 200m butterfly in 2015, Le Clos missed out on a podium place in Rio.
Last night there was a sense of déjà vu from Le Clos’ 200m freestyle semi-final at the Rio Olympic Games where he took it out fast but slowed down over the final metres. Le Clos gave a wry smile after the race, hinting at “race tactics”.
He is due to swim the 100m butterfly tomorrow.
Also last night, fellow South African stalwart Cameron van der Burgh confirmed his legendary status by racing to his sixth consecutive medal in the 50m breaststroke.
Van der Burgh won his sixth gong 10 years after winning bronze at the 2007 world championships in Melbourne.
Breaststroke mainstay Van der Burgh continued to produce at the highest level, winning his 10th medal in total at the world long-course championships.
Racing against world record-holder Adam Peaty, who twice broke the world record the day before, it was always going to be a battle for silver and bronze.
Peaty posted his second sub-26 second time, clocking 25.99 and leaving Van der Burgh and Brazil’s João Luiz Gomes Junior to fight it out for the remaining two places.
Gomes Junior finished just ahead of Van der Burgh for the silver, clocking 26.52, with the South African bagging bronze in 26.60.