Minggu, 11 November 2012

SWIMMING WORLD CUP SWC 2012, Singapore day 1: Hosszu (HUN) and To (AUS) confirm leading positions


RENANG INDONESIA-November 10, 2012 SINGAPORE - The leaders of the overall ranking of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup 2012 confirmed their will to get the US$100,000 prize money back home after the first day of the eighth and final meet of the series in Singapore (SIN). Among men, Kenneth To (AUS) was the most “valuable” swimmer of the finals’ session winning the gold in the 100m individual medley duel with George Bovell (TRI). Thanks to his 51.50, To got 957 points, the best performance of the day, and practically assured his victory in 2012, as he was leading the scoring before Singapore with 145 points against 125 for Bovell. The star of Trinidad and Tobago was only the third best performer of the session, with his second place in that event (946 points for a time of 51.69).

In the women’s field, Katinka Hosszu (HUN) had an enormous advance over her compatriot Zsuzsanna Jakabos (146 points against 79) before the last leg of the circuit and in Singapore was the second best performer precisely behind her main challenger – in the 200m individual medley duel, Jakabos won in 2:06.41 (957 points), while Hosszu was second in 2:06.78 (949). The latter is therefore the virtual winner of the 2012 edition before the last day of the competition on November 11.
Besides the silver in the 200m IM, Hosszu added two more gold medals to her impressive collection this year (totalling now 37 titles in this World Cup), touching first in the 200m free (1:53.57) and 800m free (8:21.94).

Another highlights among women were the fifth victory of Britta Steffen (GER) in the 50m free (24.10 – her best time being 24.01 in Tokyo), the third triumph of Jessica Hardy (USA) in the 100m breaststroke (1:05.58 – she had been fastest in Berlin, with 1:04.58), the fifth victory of Melissa Ingram (NZL) in the 200m backstroke (2:04.93 – the fastest gold of the World Cup belonging to Daryna Zevina, from Ukraine, who clocked 2:02.99 in Doha), the sixth success for Rachel Goh (AUS) in the 50m backstroke (27.06 – she did better in Beijing, with 26.66), and the first gold for Jeanette Ottesen (DEN) in the 100m butterfly (57.75 – the best time of the series was established by Therese Alshammar at home, touching first in Stockholm in 56.68).

Among men, the 100m IM was the fastest race of the day (fastest and third best performances of the day, by To and Bovell respectively), but Stanislav Donets (RUS) was also quite successful in the 100m backstroke – 49.82 worth 947 points (the second best result of the session). It was the sixth win of Donets in this event during the series (the Tokyo victory being the fastest, in 49.49). Kazuya Kaneda (JPN) continued to dominate in the 200m butterfly, getting his fifth title of the year in 1:52.23 – he has faster at home, in Tokyo, with an 1:51.08 effort.

Robert Hurley (AUS) collected his third gold in the 400m free (3:41.01), Sean Mahoney (USA) got his fourth success in the 200m breaststroke (2:06.17), Christian Sprenger (AUS) repeated his Tokyo triumph in the 50m breaststroke (26.69), Tommaso D’Orsogna (AUS) was the most prolific winner in the 2012 series in the 100m free (fifth victory in Singapore, in a time of 47.03), while Darian Townsend (RSA, 4:09.24) and Qi Bin Zhang (CHN, 23.09) assured their first triumphs in the 400m IM and 50m butterfly respectively.

In the final classification, Jakabos (second) and Britta Steffen (GER, third) completed the top-3 among women, while George Bovell (TRI), the main challenger of To in the 100m IM was second and Stanislav Donets (RUS) finished third. Donets, together with Steffen, was the only swimmer that managed to win the same event throughout the entire series: he was always the best in the men’s 50m backstroke, while the 2008 Olympic champion from Germany was the fastest in the 100m free (getting the best time of the season precisely in Singapore, thanks to her winning effort of 52.38). The prize money for the second and third placed of the World Cup overall ranking are of US$ 50,000 and US$ 30,000 respectively.

The second day in Singapore was highlighted by the fast triumph of Jeanette Ottesen (DEN) in the women’s 50m butterfly (clocking the best time of the series in 25.42), by the victory of Jessica Hardy (USA) in the 50m breaststroke (her fourth success in 2012), by the sixth successes of Rachel Goh (AUS) in the 100m backstroke (57.34), of Darian Townsend (RSA) in the 200m individual medley (1:54.16) and of Rie Kaneto (JPN) in the women’s 200m breaststroke (2:20.18).  (fina)

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