Chad Le Clos turned into the “Grin Reaper” in Doha last night as he smiled at his nearest rival on the final turn before burning him over the last lap.
He and American Tom Shields were neck and neck coming off the wall‚ but the South African found the extra gear to take the 200m freestyle in this leg of the short-course World Cup series.
“[On the last wall]‚ he breathes right‚ I breathe left‚ so we kept looking at each other underwater‚” explained Le Clos.
“I think we grinned at each other on the last 25 because we were so close. It was good fun.”
Minutes later Le Clos edged Shields in a thrilling 100m butterfly‚ clocking 50.17sec to oust the American by 0.13sec.
But on a busy night the South African had to settle for silver in the 50m freestyle behind Russian sprint specialist Vladimir Morozov‚ Le Clos’ nearest competitor on the World Cup series rankings.
Le Clos also competed in the 200m backstroke where he finished in a dead heat for second just six-hundredths of a second behind German victor Christian Diener.
Cameron van der Burgh scooped SA’s only other individual gold on the day‚ proving too strong for Kirill Prigoda in the 100m breaststroke as he won in 56.11sec.
“I’m a little bit tired but I’m really happy‚” a smiling Van der Burgh said.
Ayrton Sweeney had to settle for fourth in the 200m individual medley after his silver in the 400m IM the previous day.
The SA mixed 4x50m freestyle relay team‚ spearheaded by Le Clos and Doug Erasmus‚ ended fourth.
Erasmus was fifth in the men’s 50m freestyle and Paige Brombacher sixth in the women’s 200m breaststroke.
There were six seventh places for South Africans — Josh Stegen in the men’s 200m freestyle‚ Brombacher in the women’s 50m breaststroke‚ Leith Shankland in the 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle‚ Henre Louw in the 1500m freestyle and Kristen Straszacker in the women’s 400m IM.
The World Cup series will resume in Beijing on November 10.
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