Chad Le Clos confirms his spot for 2011 Shanghai World Championships
2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games champion, Chad Le Clos is the first South African swimmer to confirm his spot for the South African national team to compete at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai this July.
Le Clos dominated the Men’s 200m butterfly on the first day of the 2011 Telkom South Africa National Championships to book his spot on the plane to China.
Chad, who qualified as the second fastest swimmer into the final behind Sebastien Rousseau, rushed his way to earn the gold medal in a time of 1:57.20 minutes. Le Clos’ timing was comfortably under the FINA A-time qualification standard of 1:57.67 minutes.
Rousseau and Dylan Bosch followed him on the podium for the silver and bronze medal in a time of 1:57.95 and 1:59.21 minutes respectively.
The event provided a great show to the arena, as the KZNA-KZ’s Le Clos remained engaged in a neck-to neck race with WPA-WP’s Rousseau. Le Clos took off the blocks with a quick start and swam his way to the first turn as the top contender for the gold medal
in a time of 26.16 seconds. Whereas, Rousseau followed him as the second faster swimmer in the first lap and posted 26.30 seconds effort ahead of the CGA-CG’s Bosch, who touched the wall in 26.61 seconds.
Then, Sebastien cruised his way into the second lap with a fastest time of 30.01 seconds and crossed Le Clos, who completed the second lap in 30.96 seconds. Le Clos’ sluggish swim in the second lap, placed him on the third fastest spot after he was crossed
by Bosch, who completed the lap in 30.08 seconds.
Sebastien completed the first half of the race in 56.31 seconds ahead of Bosch and Le Clos, who touched the wall in 56.69 and 57.12 seconds. Their positions remained the same throughout the third lap, where all of them displayed a gruelling effort, trying
to overtake each other.
The 18-year-old Le Clos displayed a powerful last turn to cover the lead, as his powerful swimming stroke coupled with his gruelling swimming strategy enabled him to out-touch his strongest competitor Sebastien in the final lap of the race. Le Clos posted
a time of 1:57.20 minutes that was 0.47 seconds under the FINA time qualification standard while Rousseau touched the wall in 1:57.95 minutes and failed to fall under the A-time qualification criteria.
Rousseau will have to wait for his selection in the South African squad to China, as he clocked a time under the B qualification standard set by FINA. All the swimmers falling under the B-time qualification standard will have to wait for their selection
until the championship concludes.
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