Johannesburg - Two-time Olympian Chad le Clos swam his way into the history books as he led South Africa to third place on the medals table as the two-day FINA/airweave World Cup wrapped up in Dubai on Wednesday.
In winning the 100-metre butterfly with a time of 49.14 seconds, Le Clos claimed his 100th World Cup gold medal and he's won all four 100m butterfly events of this World Cup series.
The South African leaves Doha having won nine medals in the two days of competition, leaving them third behind Hungary (19) and Russia (12).
Le Clos' compatriot, Myles Brown, struck gold early on day two, winning the 200m freestyle in 1:43:11 and grabbed a second for good measure later in the day with a win in the 1500m free (14:46.49) as Dante Nortje took eighth spot in 16:03.26.
And the KZN swimmer also had silver to add to his tally with 3:43.38 in the 400 free. Nortje was also in action over the 400m medley event with an eighth in 4:40.08.
Le Clos wasn't done for the day though as he won silver in the 50m free, clocking 21.17 behind Russia's Vladimir Morozov (20.88). Behind Le Clos were two other Olympians, Brad Tandy in fourth (21.35) and Roland Schoeman in fifth (21.52). Schoeman and Tandy were also in 50m breaststroke action with fourth (26.90) and fifth place (26.93) respectively.
The longest version of the breaststroke (200m) saw SA's Michael Jones eighth in 2:21.53. In women's 50m freestyle action, SA's Emma Chelius took sixth spot in 26.65 as Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen won in 24.12.
Other SA representation in the women's ranks saw Bianca Pera also take sixth spot, in the 400m free (4:42.16). Pera also took seventh in the 800 free with a time of 9:35.37 as Hungarian superstar Katinka Hosszu won in 8:27.45.
Final SA participation saw South Africa pick up another medal, in this case bronze, in the 4x—50 freestyle mixed relay.
Russia won in 1:33.37 from Australia (1:33.44) and Tandy, Chelius and Le Clos were joined by Samantha Labuschagne to take third in 1:33.79. The World Cup now moves to Doha, Qatar on Saturday.
African News Agency (ANA)