Chad le Clos torpedoed American speed king Caeleb Dressel to take the 100m butterfly crown at the world shortcourse championships in Hangzhou‚ China‚ on Thursday. Le Clos‚ the three-time defending champion and world record holder in this event in the 25m pool‚ went lane-to-lane for the first time against Dressel‚ the man who in 2017 took the South African’s 100m fly world crown in the 50m Olympic-size pool. But it was never close on Thursday as Le Clos shot into an early lead and held his advantage throughout the four laps to touch in 48.50sec. He was well short of the 48.08 world record he set at the last short-course showpiece in 2016‚ but he was also comfortably ahead of second-placed Dressel in 48.71. “It was the biggest race of my short-course career‚” said Le Clos. “I was up against the best field by far and this was the main event of the whole week.” He admitted he had been nervous ahead of the battle. “I was anxious because I was waiting the whole day for this‚ the whole wee...
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