South Africa’s Chad le Clos bites his gold medal at the men’s 200m butterfly victory ceremony during the World Swimming Championships at the Sant Jordi arena in Barcelona, yesterday. RIGHT: Winner Missy Franklin of the US poses with her gold medal at the women’s 200m freestyle victory ceremony.
BARCELONA, Catalonia: South African swimmer Chad le Clos celebrated the one year anniversary of his Olympic 200 metres butterfly gold in perfect fashion yesterday as he added the world title in the event in Barcelona.
The 21-year-old, who beat legend Michael Phelps on the wall in the Olympic final, clocked 1min 54.32secs with Poland’s 2005 world champion Pawel Korzeniowski 0.29 behind and China’s Wu Peng third at 0.37 back.
“It is the first time I have won a world title so it is a landmark moment for me,” beamed Le Clos.
“I wanted to win this title to mark the anniversary of my Olympic title.
“It is the exact same day that I won the gold last year and almost to the hour, so it is a very special day for me to win the world gold.”
Quadruple Olympic champion Missy Franklin of the USA powered to her third gold with victory in the women’s 200m freestyle final.
Franklin, 18, claimed her third title in Barcelona when she touched the wall in a personal best of 1min 54.81secs with Italy’s Federica Pellegrini taking silver at 0.33sec back and France’s Camille Muffat claiming bronze 0.91sec adrift.
“I’m extremely happy. That was my first PB of the meet and my first time under 1min 55 so I’m excited,” said Franklin after her win.
Sun Yang of China won a second consecutive men’s 800 metres freestyle gold in Barcelona his second title of the week following Sunday’s triumph in the 400 freestyle.
Olympic champion in London last year at 400 and 1,500 metres, Sun touched in a time of seven minutes 41.36 seconds, with American Michael McBroom taking silver in 7:43.60 and Ryan Cochrane of Canada bronze in 7:43.70.
South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh won the men’s 50m breaststroke gold to avenge his defeat to Australia’s Christian Sprenger in the 100m final. REUTERS
