Is Chad le Clos playing possum again? He exploded off the blocks for three lengths in the 200m butterfly semifinals at the world championships in Budapest on Tuesday. Le Clos led by nearly a body length for three lengths and then he died dramatically on the final length as he fell back to finish third in 1min 55.09sec‚ behind Hungary’s reigning world champion, Laszlo Cseh (1:54.22) and his compatriot‚ Olympic bronze medallist Tamas Kenderesi (1:54.98). And that was not even the quicker of the two semifinals. Earlier‚ Daiya Seto of Japan won his race in 1:54.03‚ with American Jack Conger second (1:55.30) and Masato Sakai third (1:55.57). Le Clos’s antics were reminiscent of the 200m freestyle at the 2016 Olympics‚ where he went out hard in the semifinals and died late. In that final‚ however‚ he pushed hard and hung on for silver in a 1:45.20 African record‚ which on Tuesday night would have got him a bronze medal in that event behind Olympic champion Sun Yang of China. Le Clos withd...
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