SA’s star swimmers set to dive in

CHAD le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh are set to dive into action at the world championships in Budapest today, carrying South Africa’s medal hopes.

Van der Burgh pulled out of the 100m breaststroke heats on Sunday to boost his chances of reclaiming his 50m breaststroke crown from Englishman Adam Peaty‚ who last night won the 100m in a 57.47sec championship record.

Le Clos withdrew from the 200m freestyle heats yesterday morning to focus on his two butterfly races‚ starting with the 200m heats this morning.

The 2013 world champion is up against a tough field‚ including Hungary’s reigning world titleholder Laszlo Cseh.

Myles Brown was the only SA swimmer in action yesterday evening‚ ending seventh in his 200m freestyle semifinal in 1min 47.19sec – missing out on a spot in today’s final by less than a second.

In the women’s 100m breaststroke earlier yesterday‚ Kaylene Corbett was 10th in her heat in 1:10.16‚ which ranked her 31st out of 53 competitors.

In the women’s 1 500m freestyle heats‚ Samantha Randle clocked 17:22.42.

US gold-medal machine Katie Ledecky cruised into the women’s 1 500m freestyle final from yesterday’s heats to stay on course for an historic 12th worlds gold.

Ledecky was the fastest qualifier, at 15 minutes, 47.54 seconds – nearly 18 seconds ahead of the field – to maintain her iron grip on the event.

“I feel good. I just wanted to have a good, controlled, easy swim and get a good lane for the final,” Ledecky said.

The unstoppable 20-year-old had already picked up two golds on Sunday night, winning the 400m title for the third championships in a row, then helping the United States win the 4x100m relay.

That left her level with Missy Franklin on a record 11 gold medals at world championships.

Ledecky is on course to win her third title – of a possible six here – in today’s 1 500m final, which would make her the first woman to win 12 world championship golds.