Strong swims put Chad on track for World Champs
Veteran Chad Le Clos seems on track for the world short-course championships in Melbourne next month after delivering solid performances during the three-leg World Cup series, which came to a close in the US early this morning.
Le Clos won the 100m butterfly at all three stops in Berlin, Toronto and Indianapolis, bagging a $10,000 bonus in the process.
He also finished first in two of the 200m butterfly finals.
He’s ranked second in the world in both events and should add to the 18 career medals he’s amassed since Dubai 2010.
Le Clos has 10 golds, five silvers and three bronzes as well as an appetite to land more gongs. Linking up with German coach Dirk Lange after the Commonwealth Games appears to be paying dividends, although the real test will come at the long-course world championships in Fukuoka next year.
Matthew Sates is world No 1 in the men’s 200m freestyle, second in the 200m individual medley (IM) and 400m freestyle and third in the 400m IM.
But the top male swimmer of the 2021 World Cup series was not going to defend that title after running out of steam in the Canadian and US legs. Sates had cleaned up in Germany with four wins in the freestyle and IM events over both 200m and 400m.
In Toronto he won his 400m races, but he struggled in the 200m events. And then in Indianapolis he missed the podium in the 400m freestyle and 200m IM. He planned to scratch the 200m freestyle so he could focus on the 400m IM, where he at least had an opportunity to secure a $10,000 triple-crown bonus.
Sates has time to pull it back for Melbourne from December 13-18; racing over three consecutive weekends is tough and even Le Clos went slower as the series progressed, although the drop-off was slight.
In the 100m butterfly he started off at 48.58 and went 48.88 in Canada before speeding up slightly to 48.85 in the US. In the 200m he started out at 1min 49.62sec and then went 1:49.78 and 1:49.89.
The South African team will also carry unknown factors to Australia, with pupils Lara van Niekerk and Pieter Coetzé not competing at the World Cup.
Van Niekerk, the 50m and 100m breaststroke Commonwealth Games champion, also took bronze in the 50m race at the world long-course championships in Budapest in June.
She’s ranked eighth in the short-course 100m, but nobody is likely to write her off in her two events where her main rivals will be Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania and American Lilly King.
Coetzé’s highest ranking is seventh in the 200m backstroke, and the man to beat is versatile American Shaine Casas, who has stormed through the last two legs of the World Cup to challenge for the overall men’s title. Casas is also top in the 200m IM.
Olympic champion Tatjana Schoenmaker and fellow breaststroke star Kaylene Corbett are not in the SA team, opting to focus on next year’s long-course programme in the build-up to Paris 2024.