Medal/Record Count: le Clos, van der Burgh Golden for South Africa

Chad le Clos, Cameron van der Burgh, and Giulio Zorzi each captured a medal on night four of the 2013 FINA World Championships, pushing South Africa’s tally to four medals for  the competition.  Le Clos, who shocked the world last summer with an upset victory in the men’s 200 fly over Michael Phelps, was victorious in his signature event, finishing comfortably ahead of Pawel Korzeniowski and Wu Peng.  The three men touched in 1:54.32, 1:55.01, and 1:55.09, respectively.

Van der Burgh, the silver medalist in the 100 breast on Monday night, rebounded to out-touch Australian rival Christian Sprenger in the men’s 50 breast to win gold, 26.77 to 26.78.  Zorzi, his fellow countryman, finished ahead of Slovenia’s Damir Dugonjic by the same margin, touching in 27.04 to Dugonjic’s 27.05.

As far as medals were concerned, night four was expectedly weak for the American squad, who came away with just two medals: gold from Missy Franklin in the women’s 200 free, and silver from Michael McBroom in the men’s 800 free.  With nobody expected to contend in the 50 breaststroke (Kevin Cordes is better the longer the event gets, and Kevin Steel isn’t quite on that level yet) and a tough field in the 200 fly (particularly for an out-of-shape Tyler Clary and a young-but-very-talented-and-still-developing Tom Luchsinger), bringing in two medals tonight is a pretty solid outcome for Team USA.

Some other notes from the session:

• After being eked out by Connor Jaeger of the United States in the men’s 400 free, Ryan Cochrane charged hard to pass the upstart American to earn Canada’s first medal of the World Championships.  Cochrane’s 27.14 final 50 was enought to pass Jaeger, who brought his race home in 28.00.
• Although she missed out on winning her third straight 200 freestyle world championship, Federica Pellegrini used a 29.07 final 50 to pass Melanie Costa Schmid of Spain and Camille Muffat to take home the silver medal.  Known for her closing speed, Pellegrini nearly ran down Missy Franklin, but needed another 5 meters.
• Dugonjic, the former NCAA record holder in the men’s 100 breast, was edged for bronze by Zorzi of South Africa by 0.01.  The former Cal Bear would have been the first Slovenian medal winner at a world-level long course competition since the 2008 Olympics (where Sara Isakovic won bronze in the women’s 200 free).
• China bounced back from a dry spell with two medals from Sun Yang (men’s 800 free) and Wu Peng (men’s 200 fly) tonight.  China is one of just four countries with multiple golds this week (France, the United States, and South Africa are the others).
• After coming up empty each of the last two summers in the 200 fly, Pawel Korzeniowski of Poland–the 2009 Worlds silver medalist in this event–made his return to the podium, finishing second behind le Clos.  Korzeniowski was actually leading at the 150 mark, but faded over the final 25 meters, touching in 1:55.01.
• We’re up to 110 national records through four days of competition.  That’s right… 110!