Johannesburg - South Africa’s two imposing swimmers continued their reign of terror at the second edition of the 2016 Fina World Cup series in Berlin in the last two days of August.
The duo produced final winter-warming performances in the short-course pool in the first two of galas of the nine-leg series.
Defending series champion Cameron van der Burgh was in sizzling form in his specialist breaststroke events winning both the 50m and 100m events while finishing third in the 200m in Berlin.
Currently lying second on the series standings fly-guy Le Clos is dominating his signature stroke on the circuit adding some Durban flavour to the freestyle events.
Le Clos has clearly left the disappointment from the Rio Olympic Games at the foot of Christ the Redeemer statue returning to world-beating form in the 25-metre pool.
On Wednesday night he came painstakingly close to his short-course world record in the 100m butterfly posting a winning time of 48.66 seconds stopping the clock just 0.22s short of the global mark he set in 2014.
He was followed by British swimmer Adam Barrett clocking 49.60 for second with Belarussian Pavel Sankovich rounding off the podium in 50.38s.
Le Clos opened the gala with a gold-medal swim in the 50m butterfly hitting the wall in a time of 22.15s with Andrii Govorov of the Ukraine touching second in 22.45s. Barrett bagged the bronze in 22.64s.
He turned in a dominant performance in the 200m butterfly touching more than two seconds ahead of nearest rival Philip Heintz of Germany with a time of 1:49.33.
Heintz clocked 1:52.56 for second with China's Hao Yun taking third place in 1:53.51.
The South African also placed second in the 50m freestyle behind series leader Russia’s Vladimir Morozov, who posted a new world-record in the 100m individual medley at the first leg in Paris-Chartres.
Mozorov touched in a time of 20.79s with Le Clos following in 21.12s with Govorov and Britain’s Benjamin Proud tied third with 21.15s.
Van der Burgh was in equally good form winning the 100m breaststroke in a time of 56.56s and was followed by Russia’s Kirill Prigoda in 56.63s with Morozov taking third in 57.01s.
On the first day of the gala Van der Burgh stopped the clock in a sizzling time of 25.75s well ahead of the second-placed Prigoda 26.04, and Brazil’s Felipe Lima in 26.21s for third.
In his less-favoured 200m breaststroke Van der Burgh claimed third spot behind German winner Marco Koch and Prigoda in second.
Independent Media