Men’s 200 butterfly race footage is courtesy of swimswam partner Universal Sports Network.
Swimswam / Braden Keith coverage of the 200 butterfly at the 2013 FINA World Championships:
Another Olympic Champion at this meet who has rolled into a World Championship: South Africa’sChad le Clos began a South African medal run on Wednesday by winning the men’s 200 fly in 1:54.32. That time shows just how different this 200 fly is last year than this year: le Clos is the only swimmer from last year’s Olympic top 4 to make the final this year, and his winning time from Barcelona would not have medaled in London.
As it is, though, he did all he needed to do to complete his medal case in this event: he was the winner of the Short Course World Championship in 2010 and 2012, the Commonwealth Games in 2010, the Olympic Games in 2012, the All-Africa Games in 2011, and now has a World Championship from 2013 as well. The only little chip is one he can’t get back: in 2010, at the Youth Olympics, he earned only silver, behind Hungary’s Bence Biczo.
Poland’s Pawel Korzeniowski, the 2005 World Champion in this event, led about half of this race, but wound up 2nd in 1:55.01 when le Clos had a great finish. China’s Wu Peng was 3rd in 1:55.09, followed by his countrymate Yin Chen in 1:55.47.
The top-finishing American was Tom Luchsinger in 1:55.70 for 5th place, which comes up just short of the time that won him the National Title in the U.S. this year. Russia’s Nikolay Skvortsvo was 6th in 1:56.02, followed by Tyler Clary (1:56.34) and Leonardo de Deus (1;56.44).