2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – SEMIFINAL #1
- Saturday, November 14: 12:00 PM-2:00 PM CET (6 AM-8 AM U.S. Eastern, 8 PM-10PM J+1 Japan)
- Sunday, November 15: 12:00 PM-2:00 PM CET (6 AM-8 AM U.S. Eastern, 8 PM-10PM J+1 Japan)
- Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
- Short Course Meters (SCM) format
- ISL Technical Handbook
- 2020 ISL Scoring Format
- 2020 ISL Prize Money and Bonuses
- How To Watch
- Teams: Energy Standard / Tokyo Frog Kings / London Roar / New York Breakers
- Omega Results
- Start Lists
Reported by Lydia Ferrari Kehoe.
MEN’S 200 BACK
We widely expected a battle of the backstrokers in this semifinal. So it’s especially impressive that Tokyo’s Ryosuke Irie gets the win here over two returning league final teams that are strong in back.
Irie has been so rock solid consistent this year, with three second-place finishes and one third-place in the 200 back. He’s been within 1:49.1 and 1:49.5 with every single swim. Today, he broke that streak with his first ISL win in the 200 back, going 1:49.02 to beat a stellar field.
The entire top five were within about half a second in a brutal race, so Irie only wound up with one jackpot. He remains the #4 performer in the ISL so far this year, beating #3 Evgeny Rylov and #5 Kliment Kolesnikov head-to-head.
Energy Standard was 2nd and 3rd, still good for overall points, but disappointing given the strength of their backstroking group. Kolesnikov did improve his season-best by two tenths, remaining #5 in the league for the year.