Prinsloo, Le Clos do SA proud

Published Feb 1, 2014

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Johannesburg – Karin Prinsloo distinguished herself as South Africa's queen of the pool as she continued her magnificent form at the Aquatic Super Series, in Perth, on Saturday.

She set her third national record at the gala adding the 200m freestyle gold medal to the bronze and silver she won in 100m and 400m freestyle respectively on Friday.

The 24-year-old also set new South African records in those events before she claimed the bronze medal with Rene Warnes, Marlies Ross and Kyna Perreira in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Prinsloo was in blistering form as she led the 200m freestyle race from start to finish, posting a time of one minute, 57.41

seconds (1:57.41) and broke her previous national mark of 1:58.53 in the process.

The final 50 metres of the race turned into a tussle between Prinsloo and Australia's Bronte Barratt but the South African held on for the victory.

Barratt finished in second place in a time of 1:57.50 with China's Qiu Yuhan taking third in 1:59.15.

Prinsloo added earned her fifth medal of the gala when the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team finished third behind Australia and China respectively.

Olympic gold medallist Chad le Clos shook of the disappointment from Friday – when Seto beat him to the wall in the 200m butterfly – to finish first in the 100m butterfly event.

Le Clos characteristically left it late to take the lead and as he was approaching the wall he looked around before he finished with a flourish touching in a time of 52.66 seconds.

He was followed by Australians Christopher Wright (52.78) and Daniel Lester (53.06) in second and third place respectively.

The South African added the bronze medal in the men's 400m individual medley after he initially finished in fourth place.

China's Wang Shun was disqualified which resulted in Le Clos receiving his third medal of the gala in a time of 4:16.71.

Olympic silver medallist Kosuke Hagino of Japan claimed first place in a time of 4:09.82, with his countryman and world champion Daiya Seto finished second in 4:13.60.

Distance swimmer Myles Brown completed South Africa's medal haul in Perth finishing third in the mixed 800m freestyle in a time of 7:57.63.

Australia's Mack Horton claimed first place in 7:53.88 while Kohei Yamamoto grabbed the silver medal in a time of 7:56.36.

It was a relatively successful campaign for South Africa after the team returned from the inaugural series – which was initially a tri-nation gala which included Australia and China.

This year Brazil and Japan were added to the program which made competition even tougher than the previous edition.

South Africa finished the five-nation competition with 10 medals in total. – Sapa

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