Chad and Katika are royal company

They entered the competition as the two biggest stars, and boy did they live up to their reputation.

Chad le Clos and Katinka Hosszu virtually sealed the overall male and female Fina World Cup (short course) titles, respectively, on Wednesday when they emerged as King and Queen of the Singapore leg of the event.

South African swimming sensation le Clos romped home with a two-day haul of five golds in as many events at the Singapore Sports School pool.

Hungary's Hosszu won a total of five golds and two silvers, living up to her "Iron Lady" tag by swimming a total of 19 races in 10 events spanning 3,200 metres, including heats and finals.

The 24-year-old won gold in the 100m fly (56.58), 100m backstroke (57.04), 100 individual medley (58.29), 200m IM (2:05.33) and 400 IM (4:27.60).

She also won silvers in the 200m freestyle and 200m fly.

In her fourth race last night, Hosszu had just enough in the tank to see off Australian Alicia Coutts' challenge by just 0.03s.

Even though she finished last in her final race in the 50m fly, she was all smiles as she told The New Paper: "I'm really happy to swim some of my best times despite so many events.

"I love it here but I'm also looking forward to race some more in the last two stops in Tokyo and Beijing, even though the overall title is in the bag."

Le Clos, 21, had already broken the 200m butterfly world record with a time of 1min 48.56sec on Tuesday.

Last night, he thrilled the crowd in two keenly-contested finals before an easy win to end his programme.

In the 200m freestyle, he was behind Australia's Thomas Fraser-Holmes until the last 25m, where le Clos' power-packed strokes propelled him to the wall first in 1:42.29 - personal best - just ahead of Fraser- Holmes' 1:42.47.

The winning margin in the 100m fly was even smaller - just 0.05s separated le Clos' winning time of 50.04s from Polish swimmer Konrad Czerniak. Le Clos completed a perfect outing in Singapore by storming to the 200m individual medley title in 1:53.36, more than a second ahead of silver-medallist Holmes' 1:54.60.

"My breaststroke is still terrible," the butterfly specialist said, after he collected his fifth gold.

When asked if he would now target Michael Phelps' record haul of 11 Olympic golds in individual events, he replied: "Yeah, we'll see!

"I love to challenge myself... I'm trying to compete more... I hope to take part in the freestyle events at the 2016 Olympics and will train to be the best in that, in addition to the butterfly.

"When I hang up my swimming goggles, I want to know that I did my best in everything."

Get The New Paper for more stories.