South African swimmer Chad le Clos wasn’t fully satisfied in beating Michael Phelps at the 2012 Olympics. His eyes are now fixed on Phelps’ world records.
“My next goal is to break one of Michael Phelps’ long-course records, eventually, maybe next year at the Commonwealth Games, or in 2015 at the World Championships in (Kazan) Russia,” Le Clos told Agence France-Presse at a Singapore meet. “It’s just about getting faster each year and the most important thing is to make sure that I keep dominating the events that I am dominating, and extending on other events like the freestyles and the individual medley races.”
Le Clos, who out-touched Phelps for Olympic 200m butterfly gold in London, made the comments fresh off breaking the short course world record in the 200m butterfly Tuesday. Le Clos previously broke the mark -- not held by Phelps -- in August.
Short course races are in 25-meter pools, while long courses are 50 meters, such as the Olympics and World Championships.
Le Clos won both the 100m and 200m butterfly at this summer’s long course World Championships in Barcelona.
His best times are 51.06 and 1:52.96, each more than a second off Phelps’ world records from the fast-suit-buoyed 2009 World Championships -- 49.82, 1:51.51.
“Those records are really hard, 49 and 1:51 long course is very difficult,” Le Clos, 21, told AFP. “But if you look at my times over the years, I keep improving. If I don’t ever break them, I will definitely go down trying.”
Phelps, despite going 1-1 against le Clos in London, became friendly with his rival at the Olympics. They said they would go cage diving with sharks in South Africa this past summer.
