Matthew Sates stormed to victory in the men’s 200m individual medley at the World Cup gala in Berlin on Saturday night, showing he’s ready to defend his title as top male swimmer of the series.
Sates led the first butterfly leg and though he was overhauled on the backstroke, he blasted back into the lead on the third breaststroke leg and by the end of the freestyle was more than two seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
The 19-year-old won in 1 min 51.64 sec, ahead of Hungary’s Hubert Kos in 1:53.89.
“Every race I go for all for it. I’m happy with the time, I think the points are there,” said Sates, who was already atop the rankings after the first day on Friday. He won the 400m freestyle victory in an African record and then finished second in the 100m IM in a personal best.
Sates’s time last night was outside the 1:51.45 best he set there a year ago.
Chad le Clos delivered a late burst to win the men’s 200m butterfly, after lying third into the final turn and sixth after 125m.
Le Clos, who won the 100m ’fly on Friday, displayed the type of late kick he used in the early years of his career to finish in 1:49.62. Noe Ponti of Switzerland was second in 1:50.43 and Kuan-Hung Wang of Taipei third in 1:51.04.
On Sunday, Le Clos and Sates are scheduled to face-off in the 200m freestyle.
Backstroke star Pieter Coetzé, who has stayed home to focus on his Grade 11 exams, announced this week he had “verbally committed” to the University of California in Berkeley, known as the Golden Bears, the strongest men’s team in the competitive US collegiate system.
He will look to become the first SA swimmer since 2004 to win an Olympic medal while training at a US college.
And then SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Barry Hendricks was photographed with his Russian counterpart at the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) general assembly in Seoul.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov was quoted saying he was “preparing to sign memorandums of co-operation” with Sascoc as well as the NOCs of Mali and Peru.
But Insidethegames.biz said Hendricks denied any agreement had been reached and added that officials had also held meetings with other NOCs. “We are ... bound by the IOC’s position on Russia,” he was quoted as saying.
Whether they’re Golden Bears or Russian bears, they all seem to like SA at the moment.
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