2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
- *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
- Live Results (Omega)
Not to be confused with our Swammy Awards, which will begin this week, at the conclusion of the FINA Short Course World Swimming Championships, we’ll give out our best-of meet awards:
Male Swimmer of the Meet – Cameron van der Burgh, South Africa
With all of the star names at the meet, including Vlad Morozov, Caeleb Dressel, and Chad le Clos, only two male swimmers at this meet won a pair of individual golds: van der Burgh, and Japan’s Daiya Seto. Under ordinary circumstances, Daiya Seto’s World Record in the 200 fly (beating le Clos in a phenomenal race by .08 seconds while taking his record). But a pair of Championship Records for van der Burgh, and a fairytale ending to his professional swimming career, was enough to swing the pendulum back the other direction. Van der Burgh broke Meet Records in both the 50 breaststroke and 100 breaststroke before exiting the pool ‘stage right’ for the final time of his career before diving in to the world of high finance.
Honorable Mention: Daiya Seto, Japan
Female Swimmer of the Meet – Katinka Hosszu, Hungary
There were a lot of swimmers who took double wins in the women’s meet. Alia Atkinson (50/100 breast); Ranomi Kromowidjojo (50/100 free, 50 fly); Ariarne Titmus (200/400 free); and Olivia Smoliga (50/100 back). But Hosszu, for all of the roller-coaster she’s been on personally and professionally over the last year, still led them all with 4 gold medals: the 200 fly, and a sweep of the IMs. She didn’t break any big records, and she was seriously challenged in two of the races (the 200 fly and 100 IM), but in her bread-and-butter, the 200 IM and 400 IM, she was still dominant, beating Melanie Margalis by 1.4 and 4.4 seconds, respectively, in the two events, respectively. Absent of Sarah Sjostrom and Katie Ledecky, she brought the biggest resume to this meet among female swimmer, and her 4 individual gold medals confirmed her as the best female swimmer in Hangzhou.
Honorable Mentions: Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Netherlands; Ariarne Titmus, Australia
Will there be Us swimmers of the meet for both Genders pretty soon too ?
I think Seto should have gotten it, but I understand why it went to VDB.
Agreed. A bit sentimental to give it to van der Burgh IMO. I think breaking one WR head-to-head against its holder, who is clearly in great form right now, and being really close to Lochte’s crazy 400 IM record shifts the argument toward Seto. Regardless, those were both great swims and VDB was definitely up there, so it’s not like this was a bad choice.
Good choices. Love the reference to Snagglepuss too – “Exit, stage right!”
It’s all opinions but Seto was a beast in both 2Fly and 4IM. Personally I can’t value a stroke fifty as highly even when won in great style.