Reigning 100m butterfly World Champion Chad Le Clos was back in the pool this weekend competing at his Seagull Club’s Winter Short Course Championships. The meet, held at King’s Park Pool in Durban, KwaZulu–Natal, South Africa, began on October 8th and runs through tomorrow, October 11th. Le Clos was as dominant as ever in his home country, racking up a stellar 5 for 5 record in his individual races.
Meet Results Available On Meet Mobile (KZN Seagulls Winter Short Course Championships)
First up, Le Clos slayed the 100 backstroke, clocking a winning time of 51.89. His sub-52 outing knocked over two seconds off of his incoming seed-time of 54.82 and now ranks as the 4th-fastest time in the world this year.
One of the 23 year-old’s signature events, the 100 butterfly, was his next victim, as Le Clos threw down a time of 50.15 to take the top prize in his 2nd individual event of the meet. With his swift mark, Le Clos rocketed himself to the top of the short course world rankings, easily overtaking the previous top time of 51.12 held by Matteo Rivolta set in Riccione this past April.
Le Clos kept his winning streak going, adding a gold in the 200 freestyle race to his collection. His time of 1:44.20 again took over the current top time in the world, a mark of 1:44.57 set by Italy’s Filippo Magnini in Riccione.
The Olympic gold medalist added two more individual wins before his portion of the meet was done, touching first in both the 200 fly and 100 free races, registering times of 1:51.69 and 47.48, respectively, the former of which also ranks as a world number one time. Le Clos’ 100 freestyle time this year is .31 of a second faster than his 47.79 outing at this same meet last year, which also earned the top prize.
Other Notable Wins:
- Ayrton Sweeney doubled up on breaststroke wins, coming out victorious in the 200 distance in a time of 2:10.01 and the 100 distance in 1:00.62. Sweeney also nabbed a 400 IM first-place finish in a time of 4:20.82.
- At just 19 years old, Calvyn Justus racked up the win in the 400 freestyle, clocking a time of 3:49.11 to represent the only sub-3:50 swimmer of the race.
- Rene Warnes collected an impressive five individual wins on the women’s side, including the 400 free (4:14.58), 400 IM (4:42.46), 100 fly (1:02.58), 200 free (2:02.28), and 200 butterfly (2:13.12).
Honestly, this is really fast times for a club based meet. And Chads 51 second swim in backstroke was unexpected, that tells you how much his underwaters have improved. And a 50.15 is like a 51.7 in long course for an 100 fly and a 1:51.69 is around a 1:54 high, so good swimming here. Rio can not come soon enough, Their are so many rivalries poping up that the competition should be fierce.