The tough are ready to get going
● Chad Le Clos reckons he can upstage his more fancied Australian rivals in the 200m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games in April because he’s tougher than they are.
The South African will compete in four individual races at the showpiece — the three butterfly races and the 200m freestyle event where he took the Olympic silver behind China’s Sun Yang at the Rio Games in 2016.
He didn’t swim that race at the world championships last year as he focused his effort on reclaiming his 200m butterfly crown, but now he’s back in the freestyle armada and wants to take glory in the lion’s den in Gold Coast from April 4-15.
Out to upset
Not only will he face three Aussies in that race, including Olympic 400m champion Mack Horton, but also Englishman James Guy, who boasts a faster best time.
“I like being the underdog . . . In Aus it’s going to be hard to beat those guys,” said Le Clos, who headed into training camp in Turkey this week.
“I don’t think I’m the best 200 freestyler in the group, I don’t — I think I’m probably fourth or fifth best.
“But I believe I’m a lot tougher than those boys and I believe with the game plan, with the experience, I feel I can maybe cause another upset like in Rio.”
If he were told he could take only one gold medal at the 2018 showpiece, Le Clos would opt for the 200m butterfly.
“If I have to win one gold and four silvers I pick the 200 fly because if I win the 200 fly I become the first person to do it three times . . . noone’s done that ever before.”
There have been three-time Games champions, like Australian Mike Wenden in the 100m freestyle from 1966 to 1974.
But nobody has done it in the 200m butterfly, and no South African swimmer has won three golds in the same event.
Roland Schoeman, who shares the SA record of 12 Commonwealth Games medals with Le Clos, won four consecutive medals in the 50m butterfly and three in the 50m freestyle, but they weren’t all gold.
Le Clos is surely certain to move well ahead of Schoeman on the medal count. He is the favourite in the 200m butterfly and will have an excellent shot in the 200m freestyle, but victory will be tough in the 100m butterfly if he goes up against Olympic champion Joseph Schooling of Singapore.
And his prospects of gold in the 50m fly appear even smaller.
Le Clos’s odds of matching the all-time record of 18 Games gongs, shared by shooters Mick Gault of England and Australian Phillip Adams, will depend on the relays.