A disappointing finish for South African swimming star Chad le Clos, who failed to reach the Olympic podium, grabbing fifth place in the men’s 200m butterfly final on Wednesday, reports News24.
Going into the competition, Le Clos was the underdog, with the favourite Kristof Milak of Hungary being the one to beat. However, the South African swimmer appeared to be swimming to victory, leading the 100m mark before being overtaken by Milak. Le Clos admits that his failure to reach the podium “stung” as he attempted to make his much-anticipated comeback, he told Supersport.
“I was feeling really good, I thought I was going to win at one stage… It stung real bad because I thought I’m back. But then coming back [in the final 50m] the legs stopped working. I could see them coming and I was telling myself to hang on for 10 more metres. It sucks but that’s life. Congratulations to Kristof. It was going to be tough to beat him so well-deserved for him,” said Le Clos after the race.
“It’s part of life. We’ve had a lot of tragedies in the last year so this is nothing compared to that, but it hurts a lot. Not quite as bad as five years ago [when he finished in fourth place]. But it’s my third 200 ’fly final, I guess that’s not too bad. I’ll be back, it’s no problem. It’s not the end,” he continued.
Milak finished in a time of 1:51.25, breaking the previous Olympic record held by Michael Phelps, beating this by 0.78 seconds. Le Clos touched the wall in fifth place in 1:54.93, while Japans Tomoru Honda took home silver (1:53.73) and Italian Federico Burdisso nabbed third place (1:54.45).
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Picture: Twitter @Team South Africa