Chad le Clos reclaimed his 200m butterfly world crown as he torpedoed the reigning champion, Laszlo Cseh, in front of his home crowd in Budapest on Wednesday night. About 20 minutes later, Cameron van der Burgh won SA’s second medal of the world championships‚ making the 50m breaststroke bronze podium for the sixth time. Le Clos‚ as he did in the semifinals on Tuesday night‚ went out hard to establish a commanding lead. But, unlike the previous evening‚ he kept pushing on the final length. The 25-year-old clocked 1min 53.33sec‚ his fastest time since winning Olympic gold at the London 2012 Games‚ relegating his Hungarian rival into second place in 1:53.72. Daiyo Seto of Japan was third in 1:54.21. Le Clos’s time would have been good enough for Olympic gold at Rio 2016‚ where the South African star was knocked off the podium into fourth place. That defeat hurt him‚ but his performance on Wednesday would have eased the pain. Behind him were the Olympic silver and bronze medallists‚ Ma...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.