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Le Clos powers to gold in the pool in China

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Chad le Clos (Getty Images)
Chad le Clos (Getty Images)

Cape Town - South Africa's Chad le Clos won a gold medal at the 14th FINA World Swimming short course Championships in Hangzhou, China on Thursday.

READ: Twitter reacts to Cameron van der Burgh's shock retirement

After finishing as runner-up in the men's 200m butterfly final earlier in the week, Le Clos went one better, this time in the 100m butterfly.

Le Clos stopped the clock in a time of 48.50, some 0.21 ahead of rising American star Caeleb Dressel. China's Zhuhao Li took bronze in 49.25.

Le Clos remains the world record holder in the event, having posted 48.08 at the last FINA World Swimming Championships (SC) in Windsor, Canada in 2016.

Le Clos' gold was South Africa's second of the championship after Cameron van der Burgh's memorable victory in the men's 100m breaststroke on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, earlier on Thursday, SA's Erin Gallagher finished eighth in the women's 100m freestyle final.

Minutes later, the soon to be 20-year-old failed to reach the final of the 50m butterfly when she could only manage the 16th - and slowest - time in the semi-finals.

In better news for Team SA, Bradley Tandy qualified with the seventh-quickest time (21.07) for Friday's splash-and-dash men's 50m freestyle final.

South African team in Hangzhou:

Men

Chad le Clos, Cameron van der Burgh, Brad Tandy, Ryan Coetzee, Ayrton Sweeney, Douglas Erasmus

Women

Erin Gallagher, Emily Visagie, Rebecca Meder

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