Le Clos bags gold again in Doha
Le Clos, the world's leading men's butterfly swimmer, suffered an upset when US swimmer Tom Shields got the better of him to set a new US record of 48.80 seconds.
Shields opened the gap over the last lap of the race, which proved too much for Le Clos, who has a characteristic strong finish.
The South African sensation touched in a time of 49.05sec with Poland's Konrad Czerniak taking third in 50.33sec.
Three events later, Le Clos shook off the disappointment of the loss to finish strongly in the 200m individual medley and take gold in a time of one minute, 53.32 (1:53.32).
Le Clos led the US's Kenneth To over the first two strokes, but faded in the breaststroke leg to give his rival a slender lead.
However, he pulled away in the final freestyle leg to comfortably touch ahead of To, who clocked a time of 1:54.36. David Verraszto of Hungary finished third in 1:56.14.
Earlier, Le Clos's training partner Myles Brown claimed gold in the men's 1500m freestyle, finishing strongly over the final stretch to beat Ous Mellouli of Tunisia in a time of 14:36.19.
Mellouli touched in a time of 14:36.46, and Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri claimed third place with 14:39.18.
Brown turned in another solid performance in the men's 200m freestyle, where he just missed out on the top-podium spot, and finished third in 1:44.11 after tussling with the US's Bobby Hurley for first and second place for most of the race.
However, Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski beat them to the wall in a time of 1:44.00. Hurley grabbed silver in 1:44.10.
Meanwhile, South African swimming stalwart Roland Schoeman just missed out on claiming his third gold medal at the Doha gala when he was out-touched by Vlad Morozov of Russia in the men's 50m freestyle in 21.03 seconds.
Schoeman clocked a time of 21.04sec for the silver medal, and Anthony Ervin of the US placed third with 21.23sec.
(File photo:Gallo Images)
- Sapa