Le Clos unlucky - says coach Hill

Hill also considers himself rather unlucky in the wake of the awards.

Hill was nominated for the Coach of the Year honour, while Le Clos was fancied to win the prestigious Sportstar of the Year Award.

However, on the the night Le Clos lost out to Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper, Itumeleng Khune, while the Coach of the Year award went to wheelchair tennis coach Holger Losch.

"Taking nothing away from the other athletes, I just feel that there should rather be a Sportstar Award based on merit and then possibly another award for say Sports Personality of the Year," Hill said.

Hill felt that Le Clos had done more than enough in the 2013 season to secure him the award.

Honours achieved by Le Clos this year include:

The 100m and 200m Butterfly World Champion
A winner of 24 gold medals during the Fina World Cup Series
Fina World Cup Series Overall Winner
World Record swims on more than one occasion

The duo are now even more determined to get back to work and focus on the 2014 season. Another very busy season is on the cards for 21-year-old Le Clos and his mentor.

Meanwhile, Princess Charlene of Monaco, who was a former swimmer of Hill's, is funding a project to upgrade the training facilities at which Hill coaches.

This will be a great way to promote the development of swimming in KZN, which will hopefully see the club produce more swimming superstars in the future.

Hill will be heading to Italy this weekend to secure an overseas training venue leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Upon his return he will be focusing on getting his team ready for the KZN Swimming Championships taking place at the Kings Park Pool in Durban next month.

(Photo:Josh Skevington)

- Alain Tardin

Twitter - @alaintardin @ECR Sportswave @SportswaveAndre