Chad Le Clos's butterfly redemption to come

11 December 2016 - 02:00 By DAVID ISAACSON
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By the time you read this, Chad Le Clos should have secured his third gold medal of the world short-course championships in Canada.

He went into the 50m butterfly final seeded second behind American Tom Shields, who won the one semifinal in 22.38sec on Friday night.

The South African won the other heat in 22.41.

Thirty minutes before both men had competed in the 4x50m freestyle relay, where Shields again out-gunned Le Clos by 20.58sec to 20.83.

But Le Clos is a different beast in butterfly, beating Shields in the 100m and 200m races this week. Historically, he has also been quicker over 50m, owning the 21.95 championship record from 2014.

His only failure in Canada was losing the 200m freestyle crown he had won two years ago, but even a full house of butterfly titles can not erase his 200m 'fly disappointment from the Rio Olympics.

Le Clos has mastered short-course swimming over 25-metre laps, where his lightning turns and strong underwater swimming give him the advantage.

His Rio redemption will have to come in an Olympic-sized 50m pool, starting at the world long-course championships in Budapest next year.

He will never get the chance to avenge his defeat to Michael Phelps, who has retired for good, so he will have to go for times. He owns the 100m and 200m 'fly short-course world records, but he needs world marks in long-course swimming.

In Canada, Le Clos has come up against only one of his five conquerors from Brazil, Hungarian Tamas Kenderesi, the Olympic 200m 'fly silver medallist who failed to advance beyond the heats in Canada. The other two 200m medallists were absent, as was Olympic 100m king Joseph Schooling of Singapore.

Even China's Sun Yang, the Olympic 200m freestyle champion, missed the gala.

Canada, if nothing else, can be the first step in Le Clos's road to recovery. He has been SA's only swimmer to win medals at this event to date, although Cameron van der Burgh and Giulio Zorzi returned to action yesterday morning in the 50m breaststroke.

The gala ended on Saturday night.

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