You can’t complain about a personal best, says Le Clos
JOHANNESBURG: He may not have taken gold this time, but Chad le Clos was still “very happy” with a personal best and a silver medal in the 100m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games yesterday.
Le Clos stopped the clock at 48.15, exactly the same time as Rio Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers, so they shared the silver.
Gold went to Scotland’s Duncan Scott, who raced to glory in a time of 48.02.
“I am very happy, I am very proud, and it was very close, I could see him coming behind me and was like ‘please no, please no’ but I am happy with the swim,” Le Clos said after winning his third medal of the Games.
“It is a personal best time for me and you can’t complain about a PB … I had a great race but I tightened up and overextended a little too much.”
Le Clos has been in fine form at the Games except for a small snag in the 200m freestyle final where he finished in seventh place.
He won South Africa’s first gold medal in the pool when he raced to victory in the 50m butterfly on Thursday before he dominated his 200m butterfly final claiming his third consecutive gold medal in his pet event on Saturday.
South Africa will be looking to make history when he gets in the pool on Monday for the 100m butterfly final.
He played around in his 100m butterfly semi-final where he finished second behind James Guy of England posting a time of 52.56.
Perennial medallist Cameron van der Burgh, who won his third 100m breaststroke over three Commonwealth Games with a bronze on Saturday looks set for another podium place in the sprint 50m breaststroke event.
Van der Burgh will be looking to claim a piece of history going after his third consecutive gold medal in the event after he clocked the second fastest time of the semis winning his race in 26.95.
He will be joined in the final by fellow South Africans Michael Houlie and Brad Tandy, who raced in a fast semifinal that featured world record-holder Adam Peaty.
Peaty poses the biggest threat to Van der Burgh’s attempt at a golden three-peat after he clocked a new Games record of 26.49.
Houlie finished in fourth place with a time of 27.64 with Tandy earning his place in the final finishing fifth clocking 27.99.
“I have the final tomorrow and I am feeling good, I am feeling comfortable and excited for what is to come,” Van der Burgh said.
“I am confident that I can give my best performance tomorrow night.”
Meanwhile, Erin Galagher set a new South African and African 100m freestyle record to book her place in Monday’s final.
Gallagher improved Karin Buys’ previous record by 0.1 touching the wall first in a star-studded semi-final posting a time of 54.38.
Later she featured in the 50m butterfly final but had to be content with a seventh place posting a time of 26.84.
Tatjana Schoenmaker, who the women’s 200m breaststroke the day before produced another smashing swim when she won her semi-final by a healthy margin,.
She stopped the clock just 0.13 off Penny Heyns’ national and continental record with a time of 1:06.65 to set her up nicely for the final.