Glasgow, July 27:
South Africa’s Chad le Clos solidified his status as the world’s best 200m butterfly swimmer as he retained his Commonwealth Games title, while Australia added another four golds in the pool.
The most impressive individual performance, however, went to England’s Fran Halsall as she broke two Commonwealth Games records in winning the women’s 50m freestyle and qualifying fastest for Sunday’s 50m butterfly final.
Le Clos nearly came a cropper before he even got into the pool on Saturday after twisting his ankle when slipping off a bus as he arrived back at the athletes’ village on Friday night.
However, once he was in the water he sped clear of the field in the final 50 metres.
“Last night I slipped off the bus, so I was a bit worried, my ankle was a bit swollen,” said Le Clos.
“It wasn’t too bad, so I just iced it. This morning it was quite bad in the heats so I was a bit worried, but we had 10 hours to strap it up and needle it a little bit so thanks to the physios.”
Halsall proved just as strong as she set a new personal best to see off Australian 100m freestyle world champion Cate Campbell by just four hundredths of a second in 23:96sec. Cate’s sister Bronte Campbell took bronze.
“It’s been a fairytale evening for me tonight,” said Halsall.
“To set a best time in the 50m freestyle and then another one in the fly. I can’t ask for more than two best times in one evening, especially with how special the crowd were in really supporting me.
“It has been an amazing evening that I will remember for a very long time.”
There was more joy for England as 19-year-old Adam Peaty beat Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa into second in the men’s 100m breaststroke. (Agencies)
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