News Round-Up:

South Africa: the man who took down Michael Phelps in the Olympic 200m butterfly final, Chad le Clos (RSA) has been voted sports star of the year at the South African Sports Awards. Among those that the 20-year-old fended off were last year's winner, cricketer Hashim Amla, swimmers Natalie du Toit and Cameron van der Burgh and Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. At a ceremony last night in Johannesburg, the coach of the year category went to Banyana Banyana's Joseph Mkhonza, who led the South African women's soccer team to its first Olympic Games, where they failed to advance past the group stages in London. Astonishing that the coaching honour managed to bypass Graham Hill, mentor to Le Clos. Du Toit, meanwhile, was honoured as sportswoman of the year with disability, a fitting prize for a swimmer who retired after London 2012.

Italy: At the Genoa short-course meet at the weekend, 16-year-old Diletta Carli made hay while Federica Pellegrini is away wondering how best to tackle her 2013-Rio 2016 campaign. The teenager clocked 4:05.31 over 400m freestyle. The men's race went to Gabriele Detti in 3:45.72. The men's 100m back went to Aschwin Wildeboer (ESP) in 51.65 ahead of Americans Adam Mania, 52.61, and Olympic medallist Nick Thoman, 52.72. Madison Kennedy was also among American visitors, taking the 100m free in 55.04 and finishing second to Italy's Elena Gemo 59.50 to 1:00.74 in the 100m backstroke. At the Acquaniene short-course meet in Rome, Damiano Lestingi clocked 52.84 in the 100m backstroke.

USA: North Baltimore Aquatic Club, the home of Michael Phelps, is coming to terms with a tragedy in its midst: 14-year-old Louis Lowenthal, a pupil at Towson High School, died last Wednesday after he was reported to have been found unresponsive at the bottom of the Meadowbrook Aquatic Center pool the previous Sunday. A lifeguard pulled him out and performed CPR, media reports say, and the young swimmer fell into a coma.  Lowenthal was pronounced dead on Wednesday evening.  by hospital officials at Sinai. A full autopsy report is yet to be filed. A memorial service for young Louis is planned for tomorrow at 3:15pm at Goucher College in Baltimore. You can read more on the story at The Baltimore Sun.