2018 FINA World Cup Day 3 Finals: Pieroni Upgrades To Gold

2018 FINA WORLD CUP SERIES – KAZAN

• Friday, September 7th – Sunday, September 9th
• Aquatics Palace, Kazan, Russia
• LCM
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap
• Entries List
• Results

Both Andrii Govorov and Sarah Sjostrom kicked off the final day of competition in Kazan with World Cup Records, continuing the theme of what few swimmers there are here at the meet, they are indeed in it to win it.

Govorov produced a 50m fly winning time of 22.87 tonight to take gold ahead of American Michael Andrew, who settled for silver in a solid 23.19, while Russian Vlad Morozov wrapped up bronze in 23.38. You can read more about Govorov’s impressive effort in more detail here.

For Sjostrom’s part, the Swede captured her 3rd World Cup Record of the meet tonight, taking gold in the 100m fly mark of 57.42. Behind her were Belgium’s Kimberly Buys and Switzerland’s Alexandra Touretski, who took silver and bronze in respective times of 58.33 and 59.17. Sjostrom had already notched World Cup Records this stop in the 50m free and 50m fly, while also nailing gold in the 200m free.

You can read more about Sjostrom’s 100m fly World Cup Record here.

Sjostrom came close to breaking another WC Record in the women’s 100m freestyle as well. She took the victory this evening in a time of 52.99, just .03 shy of Cate Campbell’s series standard of 52.96 set in Beijing back in 2015. Sjostrom’s outing this evening also fell just .06 behind the 52.93 she registered in Glasgow last month to take the European Championships title.

Dutch racers Femke Heemskerk and Ranomi Kromowidjojo were the next finishers behind Sjostrom, taking silver and bronze in respective times of 53.63 and 53.71. Heemskerk was the European Championships silver medalist in Glasgow where she notched a runner-up time to Sjostrom of 53.23.

With Tom Shields having pulled out of the competition, Blake Pieroni was the only competitor besides Andrew representing the stars n’ stripes in this first World Cup stop. Pieroni finished with the silver in yesterday’s 100m free with a 48.30, the 4th fastest time of his career.

Tonight, the National Teamer upgraded to gold for the men’s 200m free, winning the race in 1:47.32 ahead of South AFrica’s Chad Le Clos. Splitting 51.42/55.90, Pieroni notched the only time of the field under 1:48 and wound up just outside the top 10 Pieroni performances ever.

Le Clos took silver in 1:48.10 while Dutchman Kyle Stolk took bronze in 1:49.67.

Additional Winners:

• Hungary’s David Verraszto was tonight’s winner in the men’s 400m IM event, clocking 4:20.68.
• The women’s 800m free saw China’s Zhou Chanzhen, just 16, top the field in 8:35.03.
• Katinka Hosszu added more hardware to her Kazan collection, winning the women’s 200m back in 2:10.13. She earned another gold in the 200m IM this evening in a mark of 2:12.71.
• The sole racer from Australia here in Kazan, Mitch Larkin, produced a 100m back winning time of 53.99 to hold America’s Michael Andrew at bay. Andrew finished in 54.36 for the silver, while Vlad Morozov took bronze in 55.08.
• Russia’s breaststroking ace Yuliya Efimova completed her discipline sweep with a victory in the 50m sprint tonight. Efimova took the race in a time of 30.92, the only sub-31 outing of the field.
• Netherlands topped the podium in the mixed medley relay, earning a time of 3:46.10.