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Durbans Chad le Clos winning gold in the mens 200m butterfly final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the Olympic Games in London on Tuesday night.
South African swimming sensation and London 2012 gold medallist Chad le Clos on Wednesday night pulled out of the final 200m individual medley to concentrate on the 100m butterfly event.
Le Clos was due to swim the final of the gruelling 200m individual medley at 9.19pm this evening, just over 30 minutes before the scheduled semi-final of the 100m butterfly, the shortened version of the event in which he secured gold so dramatically on Tuesday night.
In his heats and semi-finals for the medley event on Wednesday, Le Clos clearly looked tired after all the drama of the previous day, and although he sneaked into the final in the evening semi-finals, he was the last qualifier.
Le Clos only managed to snatch victory from a tiring Michael Phelps with a dramatic last 50m surge in Tuesday’s 200m race, so will have to be at his best if he hopes to be able to grab a second medal in the shorter event.
The feeling is that he will have a better chance in the 100m without the distraction and efforts of a 200m medley tonight.
Heats
He will swim the butterfly heats at 12.25pm today and if he is one of the fastest 16 he will swim the semi-finals at 9.56pm.
The decision was first released by Chad’s father, Bert le Clos, in a radio interview and it caused some confusion in the Team South Africa camp, who clearly had not heard the news officially.
One team official said he was not swimming, then another said he was, and the aquatics code manager would not speak to the media, referring comments back to the officials who were still trying to get clarity.
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