The fifth leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup comes this weekend in Berlin (GER) and is the final meet of the two-event second cluster, which means that substantial bonus money is on the line.
While the individual events at each World Cup pay $1,500-1,000-500-400-300-200 to the top six placers, the clusters pay $50,000-35,000-30,000-20,000-10,000-5,000-4000-3,000 to the top eight in each gender. That’s important, so the standings for the Budapest meet included:
● Men:
1. 60 Arno Kamminga (NED)
2. 54 Vladimir Morozov (RUS)
3. 33 Danas Rapsys (LTU)
● Women:
1. 48 Katinka Hosszu (HUN)
2. 42 Cate Campbell (AUS)
3. 30 Zsuzsanna Jakobos (HUN)
Individual events are scored 12-9-6 with a maximum of three counting toward an individual’s meet score, plus bonus points for the top three men and women from the FINA scoring table for the best individual performance: 24-18-12.
In Berlin, the contenders all have considerable work schedules:
● Vladimir Morozov (RUS): 50-100 m Free, 50 m Back, 50 m Fly
● Arno Kamminga (NED): 50-100-200 m Breast
● Danas Rapsys (LTU): 200-400-1,500 m Free, 200 m Medley
● Cate Campbell (AUS): 50-100 m Free, 50 m Fly
● Katinka Hosszu (HUN): 100-200-400-800 m Frees; 50-100-200 m Back, 100-200 m Breaststroke, 50-100-200 m Fly, 200-400 m Medley
● Zsuzsanna Jakabos (HUN): 50-200-400-800 m Frees, 200 m Back, 100-200 m Fly, 200-400 m Medley
The competition will be held in a 50 m pool, so that all times can be counted for Olympic qualifying purposes. After this weekend, the World Cup takes a couple of weeks off and is that back for the third cluster, beginning in Kazan (RUS) on 1 November. Look for results from Berlin here.
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In Naples (ITA), the second meet of the International Swimming League will take place at the refurbished, 4,500-seat Piscina Felice Scandone on Saturday and Sunday. The same four teams will be in action as at last week’s meet in Indianapolis: France-based Energy Standard, Italy’s Aqua Centurions and American clubs the Cali Condors (San Francisco) and D.C. Trident (Washington, D.C.).
ISL meets are held in 25 m – short-course – pools, with the competition held over two days, Saturday and Sunday.
The star of the program in Indianapolis last week was Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, who won five individual events and had the highest point total of 55.5. Swimmers earn money based on points scored and the teams win points depending on their final placing in each meet (4-3-2-1) to see who gets to swim in the final in Las Vegas, Nevada in December.
ISL announced that American Caeleb Dressel (Cali Condors) and Katie Ledecky (D.C. Trident) will be in action. The Condors finished second to Energy Standard, 539-457 in the first meet and Dressel can help to make up the difference.
Although the ISL concept intentionally de-emphasizes times in favor of team scoring, Ledecky is on world-record watch as she scared the 400 m Freestyle short-course mark of 3:53.92 from 2018 – set by Australian rival Ariarne Titmus – by winning over Titmus in 3:54.06-3:57.91.
You can see the point standings from the Indianapolis meet here; look for results here.
