Le Clos getting back into the swing

having surrendered the Olympic 200m butterfly title he had won from Michael Phelps at London 2012 back to the American legend in Brazil.

The South African ended fourth in that race, adding a sour tinge to the two silver medals he won in the 100m butterfly and 200m freestyle to become the country’s most decorated Olympic medallist with four gongs.

“He wants to win again,” said Di Nino.

“That is the first thing that he told me when we spoke by phone.”

Le Clos has failed to improve on his 1min 52.96sec best 200m fly time he set at London 2012.

“Everything is improving — the 100m free, if you look back to 2012, is one-and-a-half seconds quicker; the 200m free is 2.8 seconds quicker, the 100m fly oneand-a-half seconds quicker,” said Le Clos.

“It’s just the 200m fly I haven’t got right yet. I’ll be pretty stoked with a [personal best] this year.”

Le Clos says Di Nino has got him thinking about the technical aspects of racing.

“I’m thinking a lot more. In training I’m thinking about my turns, I’m thinking about my technique, thinking about pushing off and getting a good break-out, whereas before I wouldn’t.

“Technically, I think I’m a lot better than I was a year ago.”

Di Nino’s philosophy is based on reducing errors rather than striving for perfection: “I think the key for performance [is] not to make everything perfect because you cannot control everything. But you can try to reduce the mistakes.”

Le Clos seems re-energised with his new training programme. “Now I feel I’m young enough to go another eight years for sure, without a doubt,” he added, saying he’s targeting the 2024 Games.

He’ll be 32 then, and hopefully a fish in water.