Le Clos equals Commonwealths medals record
South African swimming star Chad le Clos won his 18th Commonwealth Games medal on Sunday to equal the all-time record after taking silver in the men's 200m butterfly.
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Le Clos's milestone comes 10 years to the day since he beat American great Michael Phelps in the same event at the 2012 London Olympics.
Swimming out of lane five, the same lane he beat Phelps from, Le Clos was beaten to the wall by Lewis Clareburt with a winning time of one minute, 55.60 seconds.
However, he could not be denied a place in the record books after finishing just 0.29 seconds back of the New Zealander to snatch silver ahead of England's James Guy.
"I’m gutted not to have won, I’ll be honest," said Le Clos, adding he plans to be top the podium before the end of the Games. "I would've cut my finger off to win tonight.
"It meant everything to me and my family – everyone’s in the stands, my friends flew out for this race.
"Fair play to Lewis, he had a great race.
"He said he watched me growing up and I said, 'man, did you have to do it on my day?
"Could you not have given me one more time?"
Silver medal!!!
— Team South Africa (@TeamSA2024) July 31, 2022
What a great ambassador for the country.#TeamSA pic.twitter.com/B3iydCytrZ
A three-time Commonwealth Games champion in the event, Le Clos looked like he might make it four leading with 50m to go but the 30-year-old would be overhauled down the stretch by Lewis, who adds the 200m butterfly title to the 400m individual medley gold he won earlier at the Sandwell Aquatic Centre.
Le Clos's medal haul from four Commonwealth Games includes seven gold, four silver and seven bronze.
His trophy case also contains four Olympic (one gold, three silver) and seven world championship medals (four gold, one silver, two bronze).
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