Le Clos back to push for final spot

WORD from the TeamSA camp is that Chad le Clos believes “he’ll be back” to fight hard for a place in the 200m butterfly final at the Tokyo Olympics, and you shouldn’t expect anything less from the four-time medallist.

The 29-year-old from Durban, who won gold in the event at the 2012 London Games, advanced to today’s semi-finals by the skin of his teeth.

He claimed the 16th and last spot for the semi-finals by finishing fifth in his heat yesterday in a time of 1 minute, 55.96 seconds (1:55.96) as world record-holder Kristof Milak of Hungary eased to victory in 1:53.58.

Le Clos had made a great start, turning in second position at the 50m mark and third after 100m and 150m, but he wasn’t able to keep up the pace in the final leg, coming in with 31.43 seconds in what was his slowest 50m.

Mzansi’s most decorated Olympian went into his third Games way down the 2021 world list at 40th (1:55.63), and he'll need to go much quicker than that to advance to tomorrow’s final (3.49am).

But if there is anyone who is up for a battle, it is Le Clos. He will never give up on the fight for a medal, and there was some good fortune for him with the semi-final draw, as he avoided the almost untouchable Milak, who will race in the second semi-final.

The quickest man in Le Clos' semi-final is Kuan-Hung Wang of Chinese Taipei, who clocked 1:54.44 in his heat.

American Zach Harting (1:54.92) is the other swimmer in the first semi-final who posted a sub-1:55 effort in the heats, so Le Clos is up against it as the top eight athletes according to their times will go through to the final. But as SA breaststroke star Tatjana Schoenmaker always says: “If you have a lane, you have a chance.”

Le Clos will have another opportunity to add to his medal tally in the 100m butterfly, which kicks off on Thursday at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Ethan du Preez was the other South African in the 200m butterfly field, but he finished eighth in the same heat as Le Clos in a time of 1:58.50 to bow out of his maiden Olympics.

The only South African female in the pool yesterday’s evening evening session, Rebecca Meder, finished seventh in the 200m individual medley in 2:14.79, which saw her miss out on a semi-final spot.