South African pair bring their Olympic successes to Dubai

Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos clinch gold medals in the 50m breaststroke and 200m butterfly at the Fina World Cup.

Chad Le Clos won gold in the 200m butterfly in Dubai. Sarah Dea / The National

DUBAI // South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos, gold medal winners at the London Olympics, opened their Fina Swimming World Cup campaign with comfortable wins at the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex tonight.

Van der Burgh, the 100m breaststroke champion in London, cruised to the 50m breaststroke gold in 26.64 seconds, finishing ahead of compatriot Guilio Zorzi (26.91) and Glenn Snyders (27.04) of New Zealand.

Le Clos, who took the 200m butterfly gold ahead of the Olympic legend Michael Phelps at London 2012, started his defence of the World Cup men's title with a gold medal in the 200m butterfly, but was edged out by Kenya's Jason Dunford in a thrilling finish in the 50m butterfly.

Katinka Hosszu, however, created the biggest splash on the opening day of the meeting, winning three individuals gold medals and a bronze before claiming a silver in the mixed 4x50m medley relay.

The 23-year-old Hungarian, who has represented her country at three Olympics up to now, started with the women's 800m freestyle gold.

A few minutes later, she was back in the pool to take the top spot on the podium in the 200m freestyle.

She made it three from three with the 200m individual medley crown, but missed out on a clean sweep after finishing behind Ukraine's Darya Zevina and Melissa Ingram of New Zealand in the 200m backstroke.

Sweden's Therese Alshammar, the reigning and four-time World Cup women's champion, also bagged an individual double on the opening night, winning her favourite 50m freestyle and the 100m butterfly.

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