Matthew Sates won his second medal of the world short-course championships in Melbourne on Saturday, taking the 400m individual medley bronze to add to his 200m IM gold.
Sates clocked 3 min 59.21 sec to shave 0.02 sec off the SA record set by Chad Le Clos in 2013.
Le Clos, 30, raced superbly to beat defending champion Matteo Rivolta of Italy in the 100m butterfly semifinals and score a psychological boost ahead of Sunday’s final.
He looked around a few times during the race before putting his head down on the last couple of strokes to touch first in 49.98 sec, the best time of the night.
Rivolta was second in 49.07. Noe Ponti of Switzerland won the other semifinal in the identical 49.07, slower than his heat effort of 48.81.
Lara van Niekerk twice smashed her 50m breaststroke African mark.
First she knocked 0.17 off her old record as she posted 29.45 in the heats and then she went 29.27 in the semifinals, finishing third behind favourite Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania, the winner in a 28.37 world record and American Lilly King in 28.86.
Sates returns to action on Saturday in the 200m freestyle, while Pieter Coetzé takes aim at the 200m backstroke podium.
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