Chest illness cuts Le Clos medal target to two golds

Chad le Clos, hampered by illness recently, has down-scaled his ambitious Commonwealth Games medal chase.

Le Clos has entered nine events, including three relays, for the Glasgow spectacle from July 23 to August 3, but yesterday he admitted he was not sure what to expect in the heat of battle.

"I don't think it will be in nine events," the Olympic 200m butterfly and double world fly champion said, explaining that his preparations had been hit after contracting a chest infection in Europe last month.

"I still want to win two golds."

Le Clos is likely to exceed the five medals he won at Delhi in 2010.

Though he is expected to again be South Africa's most prolific medallist, the honour of Team SA's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony next Wednesday was given to rugby sevens captain Cecil Afrika.

Le Clos's gruelling schedule begins the following day.

"I want to win the 100m and 200m butterfly, but after that I honestly don't know what I'm going to be doing," said the swimmer, who is the defending champion in the 400m individual medley and the 200m fly.

Le Clos said there was a question mark over his participation in the 400m IM and 200m backstroke, suggesting he could scratch from those races.

Coach Graham Hill said they would play it by ear.

Even with Le Clos not being in top shape, Hill is predicting the South African swimmers will bag at least 10 medals, including three golds.

Cameron van der Burgh is looking to retain his 50m and 100m breaststroke titles, and veteran Roland Schoeman is the favourite in the 50m butterfly, an event he won in 2002 and 2006.

In all, Team SA is targeting to equal their fifth-place finish on the medals table achieved in 2010, 2006 and 1998.

The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee now has a three-year R20-million deal with South African Airways, but agreement came too late for many of Team SA, who fly out on other airlines today, some of them facing a layover in Dubai.

Sascoc president Gideon Sam praised SAA for coming to the party.

"The biggest nightmare for a sports administrator is not knowing where the next rand is coming from to get athletes to the best competitions in the world.

"One of the biggest embarrassments is to arrive at the Games on a foreign carrier."