Katinka Hosszu has a massive 17 entries for the 2014 FINA World Cup’s 3rd stop in Hong Kong that begins on Monday, September 29th.
See the full entries book here.
Hosszu was impressive in the meet’s first two stops in Doha and Dubai, where she amassed $125,000, including five World Record bonuses. Now she’ll be shooting for more cash and more medals as the second of three clusters begins in Hong Kong.
Hosszu’s entries: for the meet: 50/100/200/400/800 freestyle, 50/100/200 breaststroke, 100/200/400 IM, 50/100/200 fly, 50/100/200 meter backstroke.
Are you checking that math? That means that she’s entered in every single event available to her.
Even other traditional “tough” swimmers aren’t coming close to that number. Mireia Belmonte, for example, is only taking on 6 of those races, and Evelyn Verraszto is only swimming 9.
Among other stars who will be at this meet, which again will be fairly lightly attended:
- Chad le Clos, South Africa, 100 free, 50 fly, 100 fly
- Tom Shields, USA, 100 free, 50/100/200 fly, 100 IM, 200 back
- Velimir Stjepanovic, Serbia, 50/100/200/400/1500 free, 100/200 back, 50/200 fly, 400 IM
- Thomas Fraser-Holmes, 200/400/1500 free, 100/200/400 IM
- Inge Dekker, Netherlands, 50/100 free, 50/100 fly
- David Verraszto, Hungary, 200/1500 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 200 fly, 200/400 IM
- Daniel Gyurta, Hungary, 50/100/200 breaststroke
- George Bovell, Trinidad & Tobago, 50 free, 50 breast, 100 IM
- Marco Koch, Germany, 50/100/200 breast, 100/200/400 IM
- Hiromasa Fujimori, Japan, 200 free, 100/200/400 IM
There will also be a large contingent of American juniors at this meet, joining Shields: the only American pro attending. That list includes Rachel Knowles, Eva Chung, Christina Chong, Sarah Wang, and Annalisa Parker. Those five all swim for the Pleasanton Seahawks and are part of that team’s annual pilgrimage to Asia for the World Cup meets.
For some reason, this cracks me up almost as much as when that Indian female tried to get away with having a man swim her race.
I would love to hear the genesis of this idea. I like to think Katinka was just meeting up with some old friends and one of them cracked a joke along the lines of “You might as well do every event next time,” and then a giant, illuminated light bulb appeared over her head, and here we are.
This is part of working on her condition for Hosszú. She won’t be swimming world records now, she was mainly lifting weights the past four weeks. I guess you can call the competition in Hong Kong an endurance training…
Kudos to Hosszu for pushing the limits and boundaries of what used to be thought as possible in elite swimming competitions, and racking up big dollars along the way. In terns of versatility, no one currently come close to her.
Also, at first I was mystified with Le Clos’s minimum events. But I think he is now targeting to break the SCM 100 fly WR after coming close a few times. It would be fitting if he breaks the 100 WR in Sigapore as he broke the 200 fly WR lasy year in Singapore as well.