Cape Town - Chad le Clos won the men's 200m butterfly gold medal at the world championships on Wednesday after defeating home-crowd favourite Laszlo Cseh, the defending champion, in Budapest.
South Africa's Le Clos, the 2012 Olympic champion, clocked 1:53.33 with Hungary's Cseh, 0.39 seconds behind, taking silver and Japan's Daiya Seto earning bronze at 0.88 seconds.
Having won the world title in 2013, Le Clos took silver behind Cseh two years ago in Kazan.
"I'm still happy with the second-place, the time is quite good to get the silver medal," said Cseh, 31, who has battled Le Clos in recent years, and was roared on by the crowd at the Duna Arena.
"It's great, I think if anyone can beat me, it is normal that it is Chad, because he's one of the best in the world and it's always great to race against him."
This is Le Clos' fourth World Championship title.
Le Clos' final event in Budapest will be the men's 100m butterfly with the heats taking place on Friday, July 28.