JOHANNESBURG – Making amends for his defeat the previous day, Chad le Clos won the gold medal in his pet 200m butterfly event at the FINA Swimming World Cup in Kazan, Russia.
The South African had to dig deep but managed to touch first in a time of one minute, 56.58 seconds (1:56.58) on Saturday.
The tussle with Russian Daniil Pakhomov was perhaps a bit too close comfort but Le Clos demonstrated his class to get back onto the top step of the podium.
Pakhomov was a step ahead of the South African at every turn and seem to open a sizeable gap with a length to go.
Le Clos started to reel the Russian in over the final metres of the race to out-touch him by the narrowest of margins.
Pakhomov hit the way just 0.32s behind the South African clocking 1:56.90 with David Verraszto of Hungary finishing third with 1:59.03.
We begin the title defense tonight in Kazan @fina1908 @energy_standard #ProudlySouthAfrican🇿🇦🇷🇺💪 pic.twitter.com/uQh7cuGBHM
— Chad Le Clos (@chadleclos) September 7, 2018
Le Clos suffered defeat on the first day of the opening leg of the World Cup series when American Michael Andrew beat him to the wall in the 100m butterfly.
Andrew managed to get his nose in front posting a time of 51.96 with Le Clos sharing the silver medal with Russian Egor Kuimov with both clocking 52 seconds.
The South African has his sights on an unprecedented fifth Swimming World Cup series title.
He became the first male swimmer to win four overall series titles in 2017 adding to his 2011, 2013, and 2014 victories of the annual short-course series.
Le Clos will be back in the pool on Sunday when he gets onto the blocks for the 200m freestyle before the series moves onto the next leg in Doha next week.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Ryan Coetzee finished fifth in the 100m freestyle on Saturday clocking 49.88. Vladimir Morozov of Russia won the race in a time of 48.26.
Coetzee also missed out on a medal on the first day finishing seventh in the 50m freestyle posting a time of 22.66.