SWIMMING Preview: Lucky 13 for Katinka Hosszu in Budapest World Cup?

The Iron Lady: Hungary's Katinka Hosszu

The fourth of seven legs in the FINA Swimming World Cup comes this week in Budapest (HUN), a home meet for Katinka Hosszu, who has once again turned in a stunning performance of stamina and speed in the first three events.

The Hungarian star has competed in 33 events in the first three meets, won 16 times and collected an astonishing 27 medals (including two on relays):

∙ Kazan:
12 events ~ 5 wins ~ 3 2nds ~ 1 3rd ~ 3 other races (two relays)

∙ Doha:
15 events ~ 7 wins ~ 1 2nd (relay) ~ 4 3rds (relay) ~ 3 other races

∙ Eindhoven:
6 events ~ 4 wins ~ 2 3rds

For the Budapest meet, she’s entered in 13 individual events, swimming the 50-200-400-800 Freestyles, 50-100-200 m Backstrokes, 50-100-200 m Butterflys and all the Medleys. That’s every individual event except the 100 m Free and the three Breaststroke events. And she could swim on the Mixed relays to up her total to 15 events!

Even with these virtuoso performances, she’s unlikely to catch Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom on the points (and money) table, who has been equally dominant in her Freestyle and Fly events, winning five each in Kazan and Doha and four in Eindhoven. She has also been turning in sensational times, including a 54.91 win in the 100 m Fly, no. 2 ever, behind only her own world mark of 54.61 from 2014.

The current overall points standings:

Men:
1. 164 Vladimir Morozov (RUS)
2. 108 Anton Chupkov (RUS)
3. 108 Mitch Larkin (AUS)
4. 93 Michael Andrew (USA)
5. 87 Blake Pieroni (USA)

Women:
1. 174 Sarah Sjostrom (SWE)
2. 126 Katinka Hosszu (HUN)
3. 123 Yuliya Efimova (RUS)
4. 93 Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED)
5. 72 Kira Toussaint (NED)

The Budapest meet is also the end of the second Cluster, which has significant prize money attached of $50,000-35,000-30,000-20,000-10,000-5,000-4,000-3,000 in both the men’s and women’s divisions. With his world-record Medley performance, Morozov topped out at 80 points – the most you can score in a single meet – followed by Kirill Prigoda (RUS: 42) and Australia’s Larkin (36).

Among the women, Sjostrom and 16-year-old Jianjiahe Wang (CHN) both earned 54 points in Eindhoven, with Efimova at 45 and Hosszu at 36. Wang set two World Junior Records in Eindhoven

The U.S. had an increased presence in Eindhoven and it paid off with two new American Records for short-course pools:

∙ Kathleen Baker, who set the long-course world record in the 100 m Back at the U.S. Championships in Irvine, set an American Record in the short-course 100 m Back in Eindhoven as she won the race in 55.91. That’s 0.01 better than Courtney Batholomew’s mark from December of 2015.

∙ Kelsi Dahlia also improved her own American Record in the 100 m Fly, finishing second to Sjostrom in 55.21, 0.01 better than her 55.22 from the 2016 World Short-Course Championships.

The U.S. entries for this week’s meet are about the same as for Eindhoven and include Andrew, Peroni, Baker, Nic Fink, Dahlia, Melanie Margalis, Leah Smith and others.

In Budapest, prize money of $1,500-1,000-500-400-300-200 is available for the top six placers. Look for the results here.