Swimming: Chad le Clos completes perfect quest at Fina World Cup

Chad Le Clos of South Africa swims to win the men's 100m butterfly event of the FINA Swimming World Cup at the Aquatic Centre in Singapore on Nov 2, 2014. The South African swimming ace made it an incredible 27 wins in 27 races at the series. -- PHOT
Chad Le Clos of South Africa swims to win the men's 100m butterfly event of the FINA Swimming World Cup at the Aquatic Centre in Singapore on Nov 2, 2014. The South African swimming ace made it an incredible 27 wins in 27 races at the series. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Chad le Clos wanted perfection in the Fina/Mastbank Swimming World Cup, and on Sunday night at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, he made it an incredible 27 wins in 27 races at the series.

The South African star won the 100m butterfly with a time of 48.74 seconds, just off the world record mark of 48.48 sec. It was his 27th gold medal in total, making him the first person to win all his races in all seven legs of the Fina Swimming World Cup (Dubai, Doha, Hong Kong, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo and Singapore).

The 22-year-old Olympic gold medallist also topped the men's overall standings with 474 points, ahead of Hungary's Daniel Gyurta, who had 344 points. Tom Shields of the United States was third with 225 points.

Said le Clos: "To get 27 wins, no one's done that before, and I'm really happy with that. It's a good season for me, and next up for me is the world short course championships in Doha next month."

Hungarian Katinka Hosszu was the women's overall winner for the third year in a row, finishing with 994 points from seven legs of racing. She won 51 golds, eight silvers and nine bronzes this year.

Le Clos and Hosszu were each presented with a cheque of US$100,000 (S$128,600) as the men's and women's overall winner.

Hosszu, 25, said: "Tonight was something like my victory lap. I'm very happy with how I did this year. Winning the third overall title means a lot to me. I never dreamt of winning three in a row."

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