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Swimming

Chad le Clos keeps 200m butterfly crown, but loses out in 100m freestyle

David Isaacson Sports reporter
Chad Le Clos in action in Gqeberha this week.
Chad Le Clos in action in Gqeberha this week.
Image: SUPPLIED

Chad le Clos kept his monopoly on the SA 200m butterfly crown in Gqeberha on Friday night, but he was unable to fend off the challenge of young gun Matthew Sates in the blue riband 100m freestyle. 

The 40-minute break between the two races didn’t help the 29-year-old Le Clos, who set a world championship qualifying time in the ’fly. 

He led from start to finish, touching in 1 min 55.75 sec, nearly a full second under the 1:56.71 limit that books his spot in the global gala in Budapest in June. 

“I was so nervous,” said Le Clos, who has held this national title since 2010. “I need to qualify ...

“I just want to get the times. I took it out strong and I didn’t want to go kamikaze and then [they say] ‘ah, he’s dying again’. I wanted to be in control, stroke rate, good tempo, good under-waters on all three turns, so it was a very important race for me just to swim a solid race. 

“It wasn’t about the time. I’m over the moon about that,” added Le Clos, who is looking to win a fourth straight Commonwealth Games title in this event in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8. 

“Nationals is always a stressful time for me. I don’t know why. I get nervous. I’ve got to get that monkey off my back.”

He was back in the Newton Park pool 40 or so minutes later in the 100m freestyle, but he was never in that race, finishing only fifth in 50.86. 

Sates won in 48.97, two-tenths of a second short of the qualifying time. 

But Le Clos offered no excuses. “The 100 free is also important, but that was quite a bad one. I don’t know what happened there. I guess I’m not as young as I thought I was,” he quipped. 

“The 100 free and 100 fly are probably going to be my main events after this year for sure. That 100 free I will be on a [personal best] by the end of the year, I’ll be on a 48 low for sure,” said the veteran, who set his 48.15 best winning silver at Gold Coast 2018. 

Pieter Coetzé took the men’s 50m backstroke in 24.74, his second qualifying time of the gala after bagging it in the 100m backstroke. 

“I’m hoping for the 200 back and maybe the 50 free,” said the teenager, who took the 100m freestyle silver behind Sates. “It’s hard to train for the freestyle when your focus is the backstroke, but it’s fun and I’m keen to try.”

Olympic champion Tatjana Schoenmaker had to work to win the 200m breaststroke ahead of stablemate Kaylene Corbett. 

Schoenmaker clocked 2:24.01 and Corbett 2:24.66, both of them dipping under the world championship qualifying time. 

The two, however, will skip the global gala to focus on the Games. 

Olympian Emma Chelius, after narrowly missing the 50m freestyle qualifying time on Thursday, cracked it on Friday while swimming the first leg of the 4x50m freestyle relay. 

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