SWIMMING: Four wins for Morozov and Hosszu in Beijing World Cup

Russia's two-time World Cup champ Vladimir Morozov (Photo: Bob Stanton)

The first meet of the final cluster of the FINA Swimming World Cup at Beijing’s famed Water Cube facility was a showcase for the 2016 winners of the seasonal World Cup for men and women: Vladimir Morozov of Russia and Katinka Hosszu of Hungary.

Morozov won four events – the 50-100 m Frees, the 50 m Fly and the 100 m Medley – and a bronze for five medals, while Hosszu took the lead in the final cluster with four wins – 100-200-400 m Medleys and 200 m Fly – plus a silver in the 100 m Back.

With three events counting in World Cup scoring, Morozov – the overall leader – piled up another 36 points and also received 18 bonus points for the no. 2 men’s performance of the meet per the FINA performance tables, for a total of 54. His closest pursuer, Australia’s Mitch Larkin, scored 21 points for a gold and a silver in the 100 m Back (gold) and the 200 m Back. The scoring leader for the meet, however, was Russia’s Kirill Prigoda, who won the 50-100-200 m Breaststrokes and had the best performance of the day (per the FINA scoring table) for 60 points.

While Morozov appears to be a near-certain winner in the men’s division, Hosszu had another good meet while women’s leader Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) stumbled just a little. Hosszu swam in seven finals, winning four with one silver, one bronze and a sixth. Just as important, she had the top score on the FINA points table for her 100 m Medley win in 57.05, so she received a full 60 points for the meet.

Sjostrom, who led the seasonal scoring by 204-162 entering the meet, won the 50-100 m Flys and was second in four other events for 33 points, but did not score any bonus performance points. On our scoresheet, that makes the seasonal race now 237 for Sjostrom and 222 for Hosszu, so it’s not over.

Russia’s breaststroke specialist, Yuliya Efimova, had 153 points coming in, and won two events, plus a silver and the no. 2 performance of the meet for 51 points, increasing her seasonal total to 204.

American Michael Andrew continued to sprint, with five silver medals in the four 50 m races and the 100 m Medley. He now has 21 for the World Cup, behind Morozov’s 24; Larkin has 18. Hosszu leads everyone with an astonishing 37 medals through five meets.

The World Cup continues in Tokyo (9-11 November) and Singapore (15-17 November). All three of these events will be held in 25 m (short course) pools.

There was prize money for each race of $1,500-1,000-500-400-300-200. Summaries:

FINA Swimming World Cup V
Beijing (CHN) ~ 2-4 November 2018
(Full results here)

Men

50 m Freestyle: 1. Vladimir Morozov (RUS), 20.87; 2. Michael Andrew (USA), 21.44; 3. Yujie Hou (CHN), 21.84. Also: 4. Blake Pieroni (USA), 21.94.

100 m Free: 1. Morozov (RUS), 45.66; 2. Pieroni (USA), 47.00; 3. Hou (CHN), 47.52.

200 m Free: 1. Pieroni (USA), 1:42.65; 2. Xinjie Ji (CHN), 1:42.87; 3. Jiayu Xu (CHN), 1:43.59.

400 m Free: 1. Xinjie Ji (CHN), 3:40.82; 2. Mykhallo Romanchuk (UKR), 3:43.32; 3. Pieroni (USA), 3:45.32.

1,500 m Free: 1. Romanchuk (RUS), 14:29.88; 2. Ji (CHN), 14:35.13; 3. Sergey Frolov (RUS), 14:38.01.

50 m Backstroke: 1. Xu (CHN), 22.70; 2. Andrew (USA), 23.14; 3. Morozov (RUS), 23.36.

100 m Back: 1. Mitchell Larkin (AUS), 49.97; 2. Guangyuan Li (CHN), 51.60; 3. Bradley Woodward (AUS), 51.91. Also: 4. Andrew (USA), 51.93.

200 m Backstroke: 1. Xu (CHN), 1:49.08; 2. Larkin (AUS), 1:50.72; 3. Woodward (AUS), 1:51.92.

50 m Breaststroke: 1. Kirill Prigoda (RUS), 26.02; 2. Andrew (USA), 26.15; 3. Ilya Shymanovich (BLR), 26.22.

100 m Breast: 1. Prigoda (RUS), 56.61; 2. Zibei Yan (CHN), 57.01; 3. Shymanovich (BLR), 57.10. Also: 7. Andrew (USA), 57.91.

200 m Breast: 1. Prigoda (RUS), 2:01.59; 2. Anton Chupkov (RUS), 2:02.10; 3. Matthew Wilson (AUS), 2:03.26.

50 m Butterfly: 1. Morozov (RUS), 22.27; 2. Andrew (USA), 22.76; 3. Yauhen Tsurkin (BLR), 22.88.

100 m Fly: 1. Zhuhao Li (CHN), 50.74; 2. Yauhen Tsurkin (BLR), 50.84; 3. Keita Sunama (JPN), 50.88.

200 m Fly: 1. Li (CHN), 1:51.94; 2. Masayuki Umemoto (JPN), 1:53.54; 3. David Verraszto (HUN), 1:54.81.

100 m Medley: 1. Morozov (RUS), 50.84; 2. Andrew (USA), 51.65; 3. Hiromasa Fujimori (JPN), 51.95.

200 m Medley: 1. Shun Wang (CHN), 1:52.08; 2. Fujimori (JPN), 1:53.87; 3. Matthew Wilson (AUS), 1:54.50.

400 m Medley: 1. Verraszto (HUN), 4:04.09; 2. Fujimori (JPN), 4:07.36; 3. Jared Gilliland (AUS), 4:09.55.

Women

50 m Freestyle: 1. Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED), 23.48; 2. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 23.54; 3. Femke Heemskerk (NED), 23.91.

100 m Free: 1. Kromowidjojo (NED), 51.51; 2. Sjostrom (SWE), 51.56; 3. Heemskerk (NED), 51.92.

200 m Free: 1. Heemskerk (NED), 1:52.22; 2. Sjostrom (SWE), 1:52.35; 3. Junxuan Yang (CHN), 1:53.41.

400 m Free: 1. Bingjie Li (CHN), 3:59.20; 2. Heemskerk (NED), 4:02.04; 3. Yaxin Liu (CHN), 4:03.30.

800 m Free: 1. Caiping Yang (CHN), 8:29.05; 2. Ruohan Chen (CHN), 8:30.04; 3. Zhitong Liu (CHN), 8:35.37.

50 m Backstroke: 1. Kira Toussaint (NED), 26.21; 2. Yuanhui Fu (CHN), 26.33; 3. Emily Seebohm (AUS), 26.39.

100 m Back: 1. Minna Atherton (AUS), 56.49; 2. Katinka Hosszu (HUN), 56.53; 3. Toussaint (NED), 56.54.

200 m Back: 1. Atherton (AUS), 2:02.02; 2. Seebohm (AUS), 2:02.22; 3. Hosszu (HUN), 2:04.11.

50 m Breaststroke: 1. Alia Atkinson (JAM), 29.16; 2. Yuliya Efimova (RUS), 29.63; 3. Seebohm (AUS), 30.35.

100 m Breast: 1. Efimova (RUS), 1:03.09; 2. Atkinson (JAM), 1:03.44; 3. Vitalina Simonova (RUS), 1:05.90.

200 m Breast: 1. Efimova (RUS), 2:16.98; 2. Simonova (RUS), 2:19.86; 3. Yun He (CHN), 2:21.33. Also: 6. Hosszu (HUN), 2:29.69.

50 m Butterfly: 1. Sjostrom (SWE), 25.03; 2. Kromowidjojo (NED), 25.04; 3. Yufei Zhang (CHN), 25.31.

100 m Fly: 1. Sjostrom (SWE), 55.58; 2. Yufei Zhang (CHN), 56.53; 3. Yichun Wang (CHN), 57.13.

200 m Fly: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 2:02.88; 2. Yufei Zhang (CHN), 2:03.33; 3. Yuhan Zhang (CHN), 2:08.23.

100 m Medley: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 57.05; 2. Sjostrom (SWE), 57.71; 3. Seebohm (AUS), 58.63.

200 m Medley: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 2:05.25; 2. Seebohm (AUS), 2:07.86; 3. Shiwen Ye (CHN), 2:08.16.

400 m Medley: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 4:25.68; 2. Min Zhou (CHN), 4:37.02; 3. Tianyao Li (CHN), 4:40.22.

Mixed

4×50 m Freestyle: 1. China (Hou, Yu, Wu, Zhu), 1:31.17; 2. Australia, 1:33.22; 3. China (Shanghai club), 1:34.62.

4×50 m Medley: 1. China (Xu, Yan, Yufei Zhang, Zhu), 1:38.69; 2. Australia, 1:40.53; 3. China (Shanghai club), 1:42.83.