Le Clos’ 20.31 Split Powers South Africa To New Relay National Record

2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
• Hangzhou, China
• Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
• Live Results (Omega)

Although they landed off the podium in tonight’s final, the South African foursome of Brad Tandy, Chad Le Clos, Doug Erasmus and Ryan Coetzee nailed new National and African Continental Records in the men’s 4x50m freestyle relay.

After clocking a solid 1:25.10 in this morning’s prelims to capture the 5th seed, South Africa went almost a full second quicker in the final, maintaining their 5th place position overall with a time of 1:24.14. Tandy kicked-off the relay with an opening 21.22, while the 100m fly champion here, Le Clos, cranked out a speedy 20.31 to bring South Africa into 3rd place temporarily.

Erasmus then registered a 3rd leg of 21.29, with 50m fly finalist Coetzee anchoring in 21.31.

For his part, Le Clos’ 20.31 checked in as the 2nd fastest split among non-lead-offs, with only America’s Ryan Held‘s 2nd leg split of 20.25 ahead of the South African.

Coetzee went on to compete in the men’s 50m fly semi-finals tonight, where he scored a spot in tomorrow’s final. Tandy also competed in the 50m free individual final this evening, where his 4th place was upgraded to 3rd in light of British swimmer Ben Proud’s disqualification for a false start.