Chad still on a roll

DUBAI: Chad le Clos got the defence of his Fina short-course World Cup title off to a perfect start in Dubai last night with victory in the 200m butterfly – the event in which he won gold at the London Olympics .

The Durban swimmer, who edged out Michael Phelps by 0.05 seconds in London to win the 200m butterfly title, was too good to be caught in the same event last night, and won by one-tenth of a second over Daiya Seto of Japan in 1:51.61sec.

Fellow South African Cameron van der Burgh, in his first race since his 50m breaststroke Olympic gold, was a comfortable winner in the same event last night in 26.64sec.

In the first ever mixed 4x50m medley relay – one of the the two new events added this season and featuring teams of two men and two women swimmers – Germany reigned supreme.

The team, comprising Jenny Mensing, Marco Koch, Helge Folkert Meeuw and Britta Steffen, stopped the clock at 1:43.21 to finish ahead of Hungary and Ukraine. – Sapa-AFP