Swimming

Vintage Chad Le Clos scoops SA's second gold at world championships

15 December 2022 - 12:21
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Chad le Clos celebrates winning gold in the men's 200m butterfly at the world short-course championships in Melbourne on Thursday.
Chad le Clos celebrates winning gold in the men's 200m butterfly at the world short-course championships in Melbourne on Thursday.
Image: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Chad Le Clos delivered a vintage performance as he unleashed a late kick to win the 200m butterfly crown at the world short-course championships in Melbourne on Thursday. 

And then he shed tears of joy after touching the wall in a 1min 48.27sec African record, nearly a full second ahead of long-time Japanese rival Daiya Seto in 1:49.22.

The young version of Le Clos used to bank on his late kick in this event, which he first won in 2010, but that changed as he got older, often trying to go out hard and then hang on. 

But since joining up with German coach Dirk Lange in August, 30-year-old Le Clos has reverted to his winning strategy and produced his fastest swim to date in a 25-metre pool. 

On Thursday he was fourth at the halfway mark before hitting the gas and breaking the 1:48.32 continental mark he set in 2018. That was South Africa's second medal of the gala. 

“I’m sorry for being emotional,” said a tearful Le Clos, who missed an Olympic medal at Tokyo 2020 and also at the long-course world championships in Budapest in June.

“Oh, man, this is a big win for me, I’ve taken so many losses in the past two years. A lot of people doubted me, the swimming world doubted me. The king is back.”

Le Clos, who last won gold in a major competition in 2018, said he had changed his mindset. “I was fighting too much with myself, a desperate man swimming.” 

Lara van Niekerk had to settle for fifth in the 100m breaststroke, where American Lilly King won in 1:02.67. Holland’s Tes Schouten was upgraded to silver after Ruta Meilutyte was disqualified. 

Van Niekerk started too slow and faded on the final lap to touch in 1:04.12, though her heat time of 1:03.93 from Wednesday would have given her third spot. 

Pieter Coetzé advanced to Friday’s 50m backstroke final as he finished second in his semifinal in 22.86, just one-hundredth of a second outside the 13-year-old African record. 

The Pretoria pupil, who clocked a 23.01 personal best while winning his morning heat ahead of sprint specialist Dylan Carter of Trinidad and Tobago in 23.07, will be seeded fourth for the medal race.

Australian Isaac Alan Cooper was the fastest in a 22.52 world junior record, ahead of American Ryan Murphy and Poland’s Kacper Stokowski, both in 22.74. 

Rebecca Meder set a 59.38 African mark in the 100m individual medley heats and sped up to 58.98 in the semifinals to book her spot in Friday’s final, seeded fifth overall.  

In the morning Meder teamed up with Caitlin de Lange, Emily Visagie and Milla Drakopoulos to break the women’s 4x50m freestyle relay continental mark, clocking 1:40.80 in the morning. 

There were also personal bests in the morning for Dakota Tucker (2:11.34 in the 200m butterfly) and Simon Haddon (54.79 in the men’s 100m individual medley). 

Matthew Sates, the 200m individual medley champion in Melbourne, missed out on a spot in the 400m freestyle final after touching in 3:41.05, well outside the 3:36.30 personal best he swam in October.

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