Le Clos takes triple fly gold

He added the men’s 100m butterfly gold to the 50m and 200m fly from the previous day, while he also showed his versatility claiming first place in the 200m freestyle and individual medley.

Le Clos was in rampant form in Singapore on Tuesday when he set his second world shortcourse 200m butterfly record of the year in a time of one minute, 48.56sec (1:48.56) before he broke compatriot Roland Schoeman’s stranglehold on the 50m butterfly event.

On the second day of the gala, Le Clos made his intentions clear in his opening event when he coasted to victory in the men’s 200m freestyle to post the third best time of the year.

He surged over the final 25 metres to touch the wall first in a time of 1:42.29, with Thomas Fraser-Holmes of Australia having to settle for second place in 1:42.47, while his countryman Bobby Hurley grabbed bronze in 1:43.44.

The South African again left it desperately late in the 100m butterfly as he characteristically kicked into gear over the final 25 metres going from fourth place before the turn to first as he out-touched Poland’s Konrad Czerniak in 50.04 seconds.

Czerniak went head-to-head with Le Clos in the final stretch to post a time of 50.09 sec with Australia’s Tommaso d’Orsogna grabbing bronze in 50.86sec.

Le Clos added his fifth gold of the gala in the men’s 200m Individual Medley where he once again finished strongly to claim the top-podium position. He typically went out strong in the butterfly leg to lead the race from start to the finish to touch first in 1:53.36.

While he lost some ground over the breaststroke leg, he managed to hold on to the lead and pull away in the freestyle event to comfortably win the race with Fraser-Holmes taking silver in 1:54.60 and Henrique Rodrigues finishing third in 1:55.08.

Earlier, South Africa’s long distance ace Myles Brown added gold in the men’s 1500m to the bronze he won in the 400m freestyle on Tuesday.

Brown stopped the clock on 14:56.94 for first place, with Hungary’s Gergely Gyurta taking second in 14:56.94 while Luiz Rogerio Lima Arapiraca finished third in 15:08.59.

– Sapa