SWIMMING: Two wins for Sjostrom and Efimova, two new world leaders in day one of FINA Champions Series Budapest

Brazil's world leader in the 50 m Fly: 39-year-old Nicholas Santos!

The crowd at the Duna Arena in Budapest (HUN) was in a lather after the first two events of the FINA Champions Series went to home favorites Ajna Kesely in the women’s 400 m Freestyle and Kristof Milak in the 200 m Butterfly.

Those were the last wins by Hungarians in the session, but there were plenty of highlights, including two world-leading performances:

Men/50 m Butterfly: 22.60, Nicholas Santos (BRA)
Women/50 m Breaststroke: 30.26, Yuliya Efimova (RUS)

In addition, Russian Evgenii Rylov swam the no. 2 time of the year (52.81) in the men’s 100 m Back, and teammate Anastasia Fesikova – the women’s 50 m Back World Champion in 2011 and now 29 – authored the no. 2 time of the year in her specialty at 27.58.

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom won four of her five events in Guangzhou and she continued her winning ways in Budapest, winning the 100 m Free in 53.03 and the 100 m Fly in 56.78. She and Efimova were the only double winners on Saturday.

Compared to the first Champions Swim Series in Guangzhou (CHN), the times were improved, with the winning marks in 10 of the 14 individual events better in Budapest.

The line-ups changed quite a bit from Guangzhou to Budapest, but there were five repeat winners:

Men/50 m Freestyle: Ben Proud (GBR)
Men/100 m Breaststroke: Fabio Scozzoli (ITA)
Men/50 m Butterfly: Nicholas Santos (BRA)
Women/100 m Freestyle: Sarah Sjostrom (SWE)
Women/100 m Butterfly: Sarah Sjostrom (SWE)

Brazil’s Santos, however, might have been the swimmer of the day. At 39 years old, he scored a world-leading mark in the 50 m Fly (22.60), improved his lifetime best by 0.01 and strengthened his grip as the no. 3 performer in history in that event!

The prize money for each event is $10,000-8,000-6,000-5,000 ($812,000 total) and $16,000-12,000-8,000 for the relays ($72,000 total); Efimova was actually the money leader for the first day thanks to two wins and a share of the third-place relay.

The meet concludes on Sunday and will be televised on NBC’s Olympic Channel at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Summaries so far:

FINA Champions Series II
Budapest (HUN) ~ 11-12 May 2019
(Full results here)

Men

50 m Freestyle: 1. Ben Proud (GBR), 21.52; 2. Bruno Fratus (BRA), 21.67; 3. Vladimir Morozov (RUS), 21.77; 4. Anthony Ervin (USA), 22.82.

200 m Freestyle: 1. Danas Rapsys (LTU). 1:46.74; 2. Aleksandr Krasnykh (RUS), 1:46.91; 3. Dominik Kozma (HUN), 1:47.12; 4. Chad le Clos (RSA), 1:48.82.

100 m Backstroke: 1. Evgenii Rylov (RUS), 52.81; 2. Matt Grevers (USA), 53.09; 3. Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS), 53.75; 4. Jiayu Xu (CHN), 54.65.

100 m Breaststroke: 1. Fabio Scozzoli (ITA), 59.05; 2. Anton Chupkov (RUS), 59.21; 3. Ross Murdoch (GBR), 59.63; 4. Kevin Cordes (USA), 1:00.75.

50 m Butterfly: 1. Nicholas Santos (BRA), 22.60; Andrii Govorov (UKR), 22.87; 3. Michael Andrew (USA), 23.19; 4. Ben Proud (GBR), 23.68.

200 m Butterfly: 1. Kristof Milak (HUN), 1:53.64; 2. Masato Sakai (JPN), 1:55.40; 3. Chad Le Clos (RSA), 1:55.95; 4. Laszlo Cseh (HUN), 1:56.83.

200 m Medley: 1. Jacques Desplanches (SUI), 1:57.01; 2. Chase Kalisz (USA), 1:57.74; 3. Philip Heintz (GER), 1:58.39; 4. Shun Wang (CHN), 1:58.54.

Women

100 m Freestyle: 1. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 53.03, 2. Pernille Blume (DEN), 53.40; 3. Federica Pellegrini (ITA), 53.91; 4. Penny Oleksiak (CAN), 54.45.

400 m Free: 1. Ajna Kesely (HUN), 4:05.92; 2. Jianjiahe Wang (CHN), 4:07.50; 3. Holly Hibbott (GBR), 4:08.18; 4. Bingjie Li (CHN), 4:12.39.

50 m Backstroke: 1. Anastasia Fesikova (RUS), 27.58; 2. Georgia Davies (GBR), 27.89; 3. Etiene Medeiros (BRA), 28.25; 4. Emily Seebohm (AUS), 28.51.

200 m Backstroke: 1. Margherita Panziera (ITA), 2:06.41; 2. Katinka Hosszu (HUN), 2:08.16; 3. Seebohm (AUS), 2:08.89; 4. Katalin Butian (HUN), 2:09.00.

50 m Breaststroke: 1. Yulia Efimova (RUS), 30.26; 2. Molly Hannis (USA), 30.77; 3. Imogen Clark (GBR), 30.85; 4. Katie Meili (USA), 30.98.

200 m Breast: 1. Yuliya Efimova (RUS), 2:22.52; 2. Eszter Bekesi (HUN), 2:27.54; 3. Meili (USA), 2:27.86; 4. Hannis (USA), 2:29.57.

100 m Butterfly: 1. Sjostrom (SWE), 56.78; 2. Farida Osman (EGY), 58.32; 3. Oleksiak (CAN), 58.52; 4. Dana Vollmer (USA), 1:01.23.

Mixed

4×100 m Freestyle: 1. Team 1 (Desplanches/SUI, Ress/USA, O’Connor/GBR, Okelsiak/CAN), 3:27.63; 2. Team 3 (Cseh/HUN, Grevers/USA, Medeiros/BRA, Hibbott/GBR), 3:29.43; 3. Team 4 (Metella./FRA, Timmers/NED, Efimova/RUS, Kesely/HUN), 3:31.69; 4. Heintz/GER, Prenot/USA, Clark/GBR, Davies/GBR), 3:33.64.