Five wins for Hosszu to open World Cup’s second cluster on day 1 in Hong Kong

The FINA World Cup circuit has resumed after a bit of a break between clusters. The second “cluster” of meets begins this week in Hong Kong and wraps up at the end of the week in Moscow, Russia.

Katinka Hosszu and Chad le Clos lead the series points thus far, and both continued to defend their perches on day 1 in Hong Kong. Hosszu picked up 5 individual wins, though this could wind up being her first World Cup meet of the year with no World Records. Le Clos, meanwhile, won twice on day 1, joining Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Inge Dekker, Tom Shields and Marco Koch as double winners.

2014 Hong Kong FINA/MASTBANK World Cup

• September 29-30
• Current money lists
• Current point standings
• Meet website
• Live results

Women’s 800 Free

Katinka Hosszu didn’t miss a beat over the World Cup’s lengthy break, picking right up where she left off in Dubai with an 800 free victory. Her 8:09.36 accounts for her 16th win of this World Cup circuit, and topped Spain’s world record-holder Mireia Belmonte‘s 8:13.32.

Hosszu’s Hungarian teammate Evelyn Verraszto went 8:41.42 for third place with a big dropoff from there – fourth was Samantha Randle of South Africa, the last woman under 9 at 8:59.12.

Men’s 400 IM

Australia’s Thomas Fraser-Holmes is running third in series points so far, and he picked up his 8th win of the tour in the men’s 400 IM. Fraser-Holmes jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, going 4:03.02 to beat Hungarian David Verraszto (4:05.92).

Third-place prize money went to Hiromasa Fujimori of Japan in 4:08.14, with China’s Wang Fu just outside the top three at 4:11.97.

Men’s 100 Free

But series points leader Chad le Clos fired back in the very next race, going 46.35 to win the 100 freestyle. Le Clos, the defending World Cup champ, was the fastest man in the pool by a second and a half, nearly going out in sub-22 seconds to his feet at the 50.

American Tom Shields was second at 47.80, winning a tight battle with Leith Shankland (47.82) of South Africa for silver. Shields and Le Clos will collide often, as both specialize in the butterfly events.

Fraser-Holmes swam back-to-back races, but just missed out on monetary reward for it, going 48.06 for fourth place.

Women’s 200 Free

Katinka Hosszu was back for win #2 in the women’s 200 free, going 1:51.44 to crush the field. That’s just .03 off of her own World Cup record, and just three tenths away from the World Record and the accompanying $10,000 bonus.

Russia’s Veronica Popova took a solid second place, four seconds behind Hosszu at 1:55.33, but three seconds ahead of the next-best swimmer, Hungary’s Evelyn Verraszto at 1:58.95. Daryna Zevina of the Ukraine took fourth at 1:59.66.

Men’s 50 Breast

Rising German breaststroker Marco Koch won the sprint distance of the stroke, going 26.69 for gold. That topped Russia’s Kirill Prigoda by just over a tenth, as Prigoda was 26.85 in second place.

This was an extremely tight race among the top four, with Hungarian 200 breast powerhouse Daniel Gyurta just barely behind in 26.87. Falling just outside the money range was Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki, fresh off his appearances at the Asian Games last week. Koseki was 26.97 here.

Women’s 100 Breast

Alia Atkinson of Jamaica sits third in World Cup point heading into Hong Kong, having won two breaststroke races at each of the two previous stops. She’s on pace to continue that streak, going 1:03.23 to win the 100 breast and stay undefeated in the race in World Cup competition for 2014.

Japan’s Rie Kaneto ws second, but didn’t really make it a race, going 1:06.42, and South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker was 1:08.07 for third place.

Women’s 100 Fly

The top challenger to Katinka Hosszu‘s reign in World Cup points at the moment is Inge Dekker. The Dutch sprinter picked up the 100 fly win to add more points to her total on day 1 in Hong Kong. Dekker was 56.03 to win easily, and was just about a second off the world record.

Hang Yu Sze, swimming in her home country, went 58.41 to give Hong Kong its first medalist of the day. Meanwhile Veronika Popova came off that 200 free silver medal to take bronze here in 58.75.

Men’s 100 Back

Australia’s Ashley Delaney won a tight race in the men’s 100 back, leading Germany’s Christian Diener by just .06 at the 50 turn and accelerating home on the back-half. Delaney finished in 51.48 to Diener’s 51.77. That accounts for Delaney’s first win of this season’s World Cup.

Hong Kong got its second medalist in a row, with Geoff Cheah going 52.08 to finish just behind Diener after coming into the 50 turn in a dead heat with the German.

Women’s 50 Back

Win number three for Katinka Hosszu came in a shorter distance than she’s known for. Hosszu went 26.24 to easily win the women’s 50 back, the only woman under 27 seconds.

Daryna Zevina of the Ukraine was close, though, finishing in 27.00 for second place. Hong Kong was once again represented in the top 3, with Stephanie Au going 27.33, good for third place.

Meanwhile breaststroker Alia Atkinson just missed out on prize money in an off stroke. Atkinson went 27.37 for fourth, missing third place by just four one-hundredths.

Men’s 200 Fly

Tom Shields got his first win of the Hong Kong World Cup, going 1:50.56 to win the 200 fly. That’s just a half second off his American record, which he set during the World Cup’s first cluster a few weeks ago.

Shields won easily, with Japan’s Masato Sakai four seconds back at 1:54.55. Shields had already built a lead of a half-second by the 50 mark, and used his big underwaters to cruise from there.

Serbia’s European champs hero Velimir Stjepanovic was third, going 1:55.69. He eked out the $500 check by .01 over China’s Zheng Tong (1:55.70).

Women’s 200 IM

Katinka Hosszu continued to pace her events while not quite rolling enough to challenge for World Records. Hosszu was 2:03.60 to win the 200 IM by an astounding 7 seconds, but still missed her own World Record by just over a second. Hosszu is perhaps a bit fatigued from a race schedule here in Hong Kong that’s been busy even by Iron Lady standards, and she’s likely into a little stiffer training – the first World Cup cluster came shortly after European champs, where Hosszu could likely extend a rest a bit.

Mireia Belmonte was second for Spain, going 2:10.37. In an identical finish order to the 800 free, Hungary’s Evelyn Verraszto was third at 2:11.44.

Men’s 400 Free

The men’s 400 brought the second win of the day for Australia’s Thomas Fraser-Holmes, who once again jumped ahead early and rode clean water to the win. Fraser-Holmes was 3:41.01 to win by four seconds.

China’s Li Yongwei went 3:45.09 for second place, with Hungary’s Gergely Gyurta picking up the third prize check of the event at 3:46.02. China’s second swimmer was Hong Jinlong, who went 3:47.26 for fourth place.

Women’s 50 Free

The Netherlands’ Inge Dekker fought Katinka Hosszu off of her 5th win, at least momentarily, in the women’s 50 free. The Dutchwoman roared to a 24.02, which beat out Hosszu’s runner-up time of 24.58 by a relatively-comfortable half-a-second.
That time is right around the 24.04 and 23.95 that Dekker used to win at the series’ first two stops in Doha and Dubai.

Alia Atkinson took 3rd in 24.65 at this meet that was really devoid of many true sprint freestylers besides Dekker.

China’s Yue Wu took 4th in 24.95 and Hong Kong’s Sze Hang Yui was 5th in 25.15 – about three tenths short of her National Record.

Men’s 200 Breast

The men’s 200 breast was probably the most exciting race of the night, with Germany’s 50 breast champ Marco Koch battling Hungary’s longtime breaststroke star Daniel Gyurta for the gold. Though Gyurta led the first 100, it was Koch who picked up the win at 2:02.50, just .01 ahead of Gyurta, who broke the world record in this event last month in Dubai.

Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki picked up third-place honors in 2:06.48, with Russia’s Kirill Prigoda fourth (2:07.85).

Men’s 100 IM

The second win of the day for Tom Shields came in the 100 IM. The American went 52.51 to nip Japan’s Hiromasa Fujimori by just over a tenth. Shields led by seven tenths at the 50, but only barely held on in the back half as Fujimori flew home to finish in 52.65.

Russia’s Viacheslav Prudnikov picked up third place back at 54.08, with South Africa’s Leith Shankland fourth in 54.44.

Women’s 200 Back

Katinka Hosszu’s silver medal in the 50 free was only a minor impediment to her quest for 5 titles in one day, as she cruised to an easy win in the women’s 200 back in 2:03.01. That’s significantly slower than Hosszu was at either of the first two stops, but with both a more ambitious schedule and less competition, she still won handily by three seconds.

The swimmer she beat out was Ukraine’s Daryna Zevina, who was a 2:06.39 for 2nd.

Zevina had a spectacular season in the 2013 World Cup series, but this time was well off of what she was going a year ago. She should be challenging Hosszu in these races around a 2:01-low or even a 2:00-high, but so far this year has been 2:03.7-2:04.5-2:06.3.

Men’s 50 Fly

After Shields, Koch and Fraser-Holmes had all doubled, Chad le Clos returned to pick up a second win of his own with a 22.35 in the 50 fly.

The South African topped Shields by three tenths, denying the American a third win, though both were a ways off the World Record of 21.80. Shields was 22.69 for second place.

Hong Kong’s Geoff Cheah added to his prize totals, going 23.35 for third place. That was enough to knock 100 back champ Ashley Delaney out of the prize monies at 23.50.

Mixed 4×50 Medley Relay

It was the host nation that won the mixed medley relay to close day 1 – Hong Kong went 1:43.28 for the win. Stephanie Au, Chun Yan Wong, Hang Yu Sze and Geoff Cheah combined for that relay win for Hong Kong, topping China by almost three seconds.

China was 1:46.16 for second, with Macau picking up bronze at 1:47.65.