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Le Clos & Brown On The Plane To Spain

Apr 19, 2013  - Craig Lord

Olympic champion Chad Le Clos cruised inside the world-championship cut in his Olympic gold-winning event, the 200m butterfly, with a dominant 1:56.35 victory at South African nationals in Port Elizabeth this morning.

Out in 55.67 at the half-way, Le Clos had left the pack behind on his way to joining fellow South African Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh on the team bound for Barcelona and the FINA World Championships in July. 

The silver went to Michael Meyer in 1:57.24 in the timed final format that replaced the championship scheduled after the meet was postponed for two days in the wake of a pipe burst that made the water too murky to manage.

Le Clos was one of two qualifiers this morning. His target time for the plane to Spain a 7:59.06, 20-year-old Myles Brown cracked his own whip in lonely progress to a triple 7:58.64 celebration: victory, selection and a lifetime best.

Karin Prinsloo had a frustrating morning, 0.63sec out side the cut at the helm of the 100m backstroke, on 1:02.02, she then clocked 1:59.60 to win the 200m freestyle, the cut ahead of her once more: 1:58.53.

In the non-selection breaststroke dash finals, Giulio Zorzi took the men's race in 27.80, Tara Nicholas the women's race in 32.81.

Later in the evening session, Le Clos went out in 23.68 on the way to a 48.95 victory past Leith Shankland (23.55) in the 100m freestyle. The winning time left Le Clos 0.02sec shy of the world-titles cut. Shankland took silver in 49.44, with 17-year-old Caydon Muller and Calvyn Justus on 51.24 and 51.42. 

Roland Schoeman clocked 59.57 for 95th but that wasn't the point: he stopped the clock at 22.19 at half-way. In other dash events, Gerhard Zandberg took the 50m backstroke in 24.88. Zandberg led a mixed relay off in 22.38 on freestyle and also made a world cut, the backstroke dash not a qualification event in South Africa. 

The world-titles cut set at 1:59.99, Michael Meyer won the 200m medley in 2:01.69         

Those inside cuts (those actually on the team in italics)

Chad Le Clos; Cameron van der Burgh; Myles Brown; Roland Schoeman; Gerhard Zandberg