Chad le Clos a shock NO SHOW for 200m butterfly

South African star swimmer Chad le Clos failed to turn up for the heats of the men’s 200m butterfly at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Hungary on Monday.

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Le Clos was entered as the 10th seed with a time of 1:54.93, a mark he set when he finished fifth last year at the Tokyo Olympics.

At the time of publishing there was no official reason given for Le Clos’ shock no show.

Earlier at the FINA World Championships, Le Clos competed in the 50m butterfly where he finished a lowly 33rd in a time of 23.86.

The 200m butterfly is widely regarded as Le Clos’ best event, considering he memorably won the 2012 Olympic gold medal in the race beating Michael Phelps to the wall in London.

Team South Africa has been dealing bouts of sickness throughout their team at this meet.

As reported by The South African website, Pieter Coetze pulled out of the competition entirely due to a Covid-19 diagnosis.

In addition, much-hyped Matt Sates also revealed that he came down with illness at a pre-Worlds training camp, citing his illness as an upper respiratory infection.

Chad le Clos also entered in the 100m butterfly

Sates still competed at the world championships though, but was well off his best times, missing the finals in the 400 IM and 200m freestyle and withdrawing from the 400m freestyle entirely.

Le Clos is still set to compete in the 100m butterfly later this week, but his participation remains in question.

Home-town favourite Kristof Milak cruised to the fastest time in the men’s 200m butterfly heats, clocking 1:54:10.