Gold Coast – South Africa’s Chad le Clos said on Thursday he would rather come second in the Commonwealth Games 50m butterfly after gold medal favourite Ben Proud was disqualified for a false start.
Proud dominated Le Clos in their heat and clocked what would have been a Games record 22:84 seconds, but England’s defending champion was adjudged to have moved early on the blocks.
It left Le Clos as the fastest swimmer in the morning’s prelims in Gold Coast with a time of 23.53. But the four-time world champion insisted he would prefer to line up against Proud than go for gold without him.
“Absolutely, I’d rather come second – straight up,” Le Clos said.
“I’d rather come second to somebody that deserves to win, but we’ll see what happens.”
“I didn’t see him flinch at all,” added Le Clos, who is contesting seven events in Australia as he bids to become the most successful athlete in Commonwealth Games history.
“No one likes to see that. As you can see he’s clearly the best 50m fly swimmer in the world. Hopefully they can overturn that, but it is what it is. Whether he’s there or not, I’m going to swim to win.”
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Photo by Doha Stadium Plus 
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