Johannesburg – South African swimming sensation Chad le Clos was in blistering form on the first day of the final Swimming World Cup series meet in Singapore, coming close to breaking the world records in the 50m and 200m butterfly on Saturday.
It will be the second consecutive year and the third time in total that Le Clos will finish the series as the overall men's winner.
On Saturday the Olympic gold medallist once again led South Africa's charge in the pool winning the two butterfly events.
Le Clos came within a whisker of improving his 200m butterfly record of one minute, 48.56 seconds (1:48.56) when he touched the wall in 1:48.88.
Following in his wake, Japan's Daiya Seto bagged the silver medal with a time of 1:51.81, while Velimir Stjepanovic of Serbia completed the podium posting 1:55.85.
The 22-year-old Le Clos then gave the 50m butterfly world record a scare missing Steffen Deibler's 21.80 seconds mark from 2009 by 0.18 seconds.
Le Clos surged to first place beating Deibler (22.56 sec) in second place, while South African swimming legend Roland Schoeman touched third in a time of 22.62.
It was Schoeman's second medal of the night after he claimed the gold medal in the 50m breaststroke in 25.86 sec.
The sprinting specialist had the best of Daniel Gyurta (26.59
sec) of Hungary in second place and Trinidad and Tobago's George Bovell in third place with his time of 26.81.
Meanwhile, South African distance swimmer Myles Brown also got in on the action, winning the silver medal in the men's 400m freestyle posting a time of 3:39.11.
He was out-touched by David McKeon of Australia in first place with 3:38.54, while Germany's Paul Biedermann grabbed third in 3:40.43. – Sapa