Rio 2016: Michael Phelps gains revenge over Chad le Clos before sealing 21st Olympic gold medal in freestyle relay

Michael Phelps can swap the death stare for a knowing grin now.

The American upped his Olympic medal count to 24 (20 golds) in Rio on Tuesday night when he beat his bitter rival Chad le Clos to win back the 200m butterfly title in a thrilling duel in the pool.

The most decorated Olympian of all time - he would later add his 21st gold with victory in the relay - was neck and neck with Le Clos for the first 100m but then pulled away in the second half of the race leaving a desperate Le Clos, in the next lane, battling to keep up.

South African Le Clos, with each lunge of his body seeming more desperate than the last, was looking to his left at his great rival, hoping to reel him in. But the gap would not close. In fact, it was the Japanese swimmer Masato Sakai who almost caught Phelps, the American winning in 1min 53.36sec just four hundredths of a second ahead of second spot.

The Hungarian Tamas Kenderesi shot into third leaving Le Clos empty-handed. There was a healthy American presence in the crowd and Phelps, cupping marks all over his back from his fondness of the ancient Chinese healing practice, entered the Olympic Aquatics Stadium to a huge cheer from the crowd.

After his victory he sat straddling the lane divider, hands raised, pointing to the sky. ‘No 1’ he was saying and it is hard to argue. He punched the air and, with Buzz Aldrin among those in the stands applauding his victory, looked over the moon - although the face was hard not smiling broadly.

Phelps pulled out the perfect death stare on Monday night before the semi-final while South Africa’s Le Clos was trying to get under his skin by shadowboxing in his eye-line in the ready room. What was he thinking? “Nothing,” he said. “I was trying not to even look at him. He does his thing, I do my thing.”

The bitterness comes from the depth of the backstory which will make victory all the sweeter for Phelps. Le Clos came from nowhere to take Phelps’s 200m butterfly title in London four years ago in a thrilling upset. The victory propelled the Le Clos family to fame when his father exploded in a BBC interview.

Phelps, who was due to retire after 2012, had owned the title for a decade and was in no mood to give it up. Now he has it back.

Many say that this solitary prize was the reason the American, who has more Olympic medals than any other athlete, returned to the action. He won’t admit it. He didn’t want it to become personal. But it did. It was a year ago that the two, who used to be mates (they even planned a shark cage diving trip together back in 2013), fell out when the trash talking started.

Phelps had been questioning some of the times recorded in his events and after Le Clos won the 100m fly at the 2015 World Championships in Russia – Phelps could not play that day because he was barred from competition following a drink driving charge – the South African bit back.

“Michael Phelps has been talking about how slow the butterfly events have been recently,” he said. “I just did a time he hasn’t done in four years. So, he can keep quiet now.” Phelps hit back. “Chad said I was a hero and then he was calling me out.”

Then there were death stares. There could only ever be one winner – and that man is Phelps. The American is 31, sadly too old for him to think about a Le Clos encounter of the third kind four years from now. More’s the pity.