Le Clos, Brown not Myles apart
9pm, SS1 LAUNCHING himself into a world lead, Chad le Clos won the close rivalry against Myles Brown to dip below the world qualifying time in the 200m freestyle final at the South African Swimming Championships in Durban.
Le Clos held a healthy lead over the first half of the race before former swimming partner put the throttle down over the final 100 metres.
The Olympic gold medallist touched first in a world qualifying time of one minute, 46.84 seconds (1:46.84) with Brown dipping below the mark for the second time in1:47.55.
The time was some way off his national record of 1:45.20 which earned him the silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games but pretty fast this early in the season.
Le Clos’ performance was far removed from his leisurely swim in the morning heats when he touched the wall in 1:49.79. Teenager Jarryd Baxter rounded off the podium in third place in 1:50.45.
Going toe-to-toe with Brown, Le Clos said the duel between the two swimmers provided for one of the highlights of the championships.
“I always feel this is the big race of the meet, it is between me and Myles. You couldfeel the tension before the race,” Le Clos said. “Myles’ time would have won nationals last year… it is the fastest we’ve achieved in the final at nationals.”
The butterfly specialist has dipped inside world qualifying times in both the 100m and the 200m freestyle events.
Brown, who already posted a qualifying time the night before in the semi-finals, said he did not let the rivalry between him and Le Clos get the better of him. Le Clos and Brown met again in the 200m butterfly semi-final where they clocked more modest times of 2:00.88 and 2:02.19 respectively.
Breaststroke legend Cameron van der Burgh produced the magic in the 50m semi-final posting his fastest time in the Kings Park pool touching the wall in 27.06secs.
The country’s two big female hopefuls, Tatjana Schoenmaker and Mariella Venter fell just short of the qualifying marks in their respective events. Venter won the women’s 100m backstroke title in a B-qualifying time touching the wall in 1:01.53 missing the qualifying time of 1:00.61. Schoenmaker raced home in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:08.36 which is 0.38secs short of the global mark.