2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
- *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
- Live Results (Omega)
South African Chad Le Clos missed out on qualifying for the men’s 200 free final at day 2 prelims in Hangzhou, finishing in a time of 1:43.19 which put him 10th overall.
Le Clos owns a personal best time of 1:41.45, done at the 2014 Championships in Doha where he won gold, and he also won silver in 2016 behind Park Tae Hwan in a time of 1:41.65. The fastest qualifying time this morning was a 1:41.83 from Australian Alexander Graham, and it took 1:42.90 to make it back into tonight’s final.
On day 1, Le Clos cut it somewhat close in the heats of the 200 fly, qualifying 7th overall in 1:51.90, though he did win his heat and was over seven-tenths clear of the 9th place finisher. He ended up winning silver in the final in 1:48.32, faster than what is now his former world record of 1:48.56, so it’s clear he’s on good form.
Two years ago in Windsor he also failed to advance out of the heats in another race where he was expected to contend, as he placed 30th in the 100 free prelims in a time of 48.31 after going as fast as 46.00 that year on the World Cup circuit. The gold medal was won in a time of 46.58.
Le Clos doesn’t have to wait long to get back on the blocks as he’s also slated to swim the 100 fly during the second preliminary session.