Thomas Fraser-Holmes. Right: The 1500m freestyle podium: Kis Gergo (centre) took the gold; Velimir Stjepanovic (left) came second and . Oussama Mellouli came in third. Pictures: Naushad
Chad le Clos and Thomas Fraser-Holmes were never in the pool at the same time. If they did race against each other, then it would have been interesting to see who would have won the battle between the two.
On the second and final day of the FINA Mastbank Swimming World Cup for short course (25m) yesterday, both of them cruised to victories in their respective events but it was Fraser-Holmes who upstaged the defending champion Le Clos as the best male swimmer in the Doha leg.
At the Hamad Aquatic Centre, Fraser-Holmes added two more victories yesterday - 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley - to make it four in total after being fastest in the 400m freestyle and 400m IM on Day One. Le Clos finished with three gold medals in as many events as he came close to breaking the world record en route to his victory in the 100m butterfly, the only event he was in action on the concluding day.
While that meant Le Clos had a hundred per cent record in Doha - he had won two gold medals on Wednesday, Fraser-Holmes emerged with highest number of victories among men with four.
It is a giant leap for the Australian, who had finished 11th in the entire World Cup tour last year. Le Clos, however, will be able to close the gap as the circuit moves to Dubai on Sunday. In fact, Le Clos kept his schedule light here as he skipped both the 200m freestyle and 200m IM, two events that he was capable of winning and Fraser-Holmes cashed in by taking gold in both the events and with it the overall title.
Le Clos, however, will be more disappointed in missing out on breaking the world record in the 100m butterfly. The 22-year-old touched the wall in 48.70 seconds, just below the world record mark of 48.48 set by Evgeny Korotyshkin in 2009 in Berlin, to miss out on $10,000 bonus.
The South African was involved in a fascinating battle with American Tom Shields, who came in second with a timing of 49.23. Poland’s Konrad Czerniak was a way back at 50.55 to pick up bronze.
Le Clos, though, is determined to achieve the feat in Dubai on Sunday. “I’m really happy with my time. I wanted to try for the World record but it’s really hard to do. But I will try to accomplish it in Dubai. I’m just happy with my race. I got some points, I was lagging a bit after last night - with big races like this it’s about getting results and points. Shields is a really strong competitor; he beat me here in 2013,” the Olympic champion said.
He also was full of praise for the venue and the crowd support he got. “This is a great venue for me, the crowd is supporting me all the time. Hopefully I can come back in December for the world championship and wins some more medals,” Le Clos signed off.
In the 200m freestyle, Fraser-Holmes came home in 1:41.92, easily beating his rivals. Velimir Stjepanovic timed 1:44.01 for second spot, while just a tenth second behind was Pawel Korzeniowski (1:44.16) of Poland.
Fraser-Holmes picked up his fourth gold in the 200m individual medley, with a timing of 1:53.92. It wasn’t clear early that the race would go the Aussie’s way with both Marco Koch and Cody Miller setting the pace. Fraser-Holmes was not daunted by the gap, however, and almost immediately pulled back into the lead.
He wound up pulling by Koch and winning by half-a-second, with his German opponent in second place with a timing of 1:54.45.
Miller stayed in this race with the fastest breaststroke split of the field, and took bronze in 1:55.45.
Crowd favourite and the event brand ambassador Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia failed to get going once again as he finished with his second bronze. The 2008 Beijing Olympic champion came third in the energy-sapping 1500m freestyle with a timing of 14:51.87.
The gold went to Gergo Kis of Hungary, who touched first in 14:50.24. The race came down to the wire as Velimir Stjepanovic finished just behind him in 14:50.92, making up some room on Kis on the last 100 metres.
Results (Men)
1500m Freestyle: 1. Kis Gergo (Hun);
2. Velimir Stjepanovic (Srb); 3. Oussama Mellouli (Tun)
200m Freestyle: 1. Thomas Fraser-Holmes (Aus); 2. Velimir Stjepanovic (Srb); 3. Pawel Korzeniowski (Pol)
100m Breaststroke: 1. Daniel Gyurta (Hun); 2. Cody Miller (USA); 3. Maro Koch (Ger)
100m Butterfly: 1. Chad Le Clos (RSA); 2. Tom Shields (USA); 3. Konrad Czerniak (Pol).
50m Breaststroke: 1. Eugene Godsoe (USA); 2. Bobby Hurley (Aus); Christian Diener
200m Individual Medley: 1. Thomas Fraser-Holmes (Aus); 2. Marco Koch (Ger); 3. Cody Miller (USA).
50m Freestyle: 1. Josh Schneider (USA); 2. Konrad Czerniak (Pol);
3. Richard George Bovell (Tri)
200m Backstroke: 1. Christian Diener (Ger); 2. Tom Shields (USA); 3. Hayate Matsubara (Jpn)
Mixed 4x50m Freestyle:
1. Austria 1:34.47 (Martin Spitzer, Lena Kreundl, Gottfried Eisenberger, Lisa Zaiser); 2. China 1:36.43 (Jiawei Tang, Xinyi Zou, Ying Bao, Tenfei Shi); 3. Switzerland 1:36.81 (Alexandre Haldemann, Martin Schweizer, Danielle Villars, Martina Van Berkel)