2014 is the year of le Clos Olympics 200m swimming mens' champion

JOHANNESBURG - Jan. 14, 2014 - PRLog -- While 2013 was an exceptional year for Chad le Clos in the swimming pool, 2014 could be an even larger one for the 21-year-old swimmer from KwaZulu-Natal.

The highlight of Le Clos swimming year was becoming the double butterfly 100m and 200m world champion at the Fina World Championships in Barcelona in 2013 and the short course world records of 149.04 and 148.56 in the 200m butterfly.

He continued his success in the Fina Swimming World Cup series, bagging 24 gold, eight silver and three bronze medals throughout the series, giving him total prize money gains of 305000 R3.2million.

The young swimmer lately said that his next goal is to break one of Michael Phelps world long class records and he's expecting to accomplish this at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, or perhaps at the next World Championships that will be held in Kazan, Russia, in 2015.

It is just about getting faster each year and the main idea is that I keep on controling the events that I dominate and extending on different events such as the freestyle as well as the individual medley races, he said after being crowned the greatest swimmer at the World Cup series in Beijing at the conclusion of last year.

Graham Hill, the head coach of Swimming South Africa SSA said they will likely be concentrating on the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July, but it's going to be quite a busy year for the swimming team.

The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships kicks the year off in Australia towards the end with this month.

There's also the Youth Olympics for the younger swimmers and Commonwealth Games, the Fina World Cup series as well as the World Short Course Championships, where South Africa will be represented, he said.

But the head coach is excited in regards to the Commonwealth Games, where he considers the South African mens team can make a huge impact.

With America, the  swimming team in the world not part of the Commonwealth we could bag a few gold medals once again, he said.

Hill said that Cameron van der Burgh must be the favourite to win the 50m and 100m breaststroke, and Le Clos might be in the podium seven times as he will be going into the 100m and 200m freestyle; 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly; and the 200m and 400m individual medley occasions.

He'll also be swimming in the three relay events.

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Le Clos won the 200m butterfly as well as the 400m individual medley, and collected silver in the 4x100m medley and two bronze medals in the 4x100m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle.

Van der Burgh won the 50m and 100m breaststroke, and won silver in the 4x100m medley.

It isn't just the most notable two swimmers in the team but we still have Myles Brown who won five gold medals, eight silver and five bronze medals at the recent World Cup series. Roland Schoeman will be up there in the sprint occasions and there are still a number of swimmers in america like Sebastian Rossouw, Dylan Bosch and Michael Meyer, who are strong challengers, said Hill.

Based on Hill, South Africa will be entering the men in each of the relay races 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley where he believes they could get to the podium.

Our women are not yet as strong as our mens team, but Karin Prinsloo and Rene Warnes will be the two to see for individual medals as they are our  swimmers.

But we will soon be entering a 4x100m freestyle relay team as Jessica Ashleigh-Cooper is swimming powerful, said Hill.

See more on: http://chadleclos.com