The debut of the FINA Champions Swim Series will be remembered for its unique concept and seeing a lot of Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), Katinka Hosszu (HUN) and Michael Andrew (USA).
Sjostrom was the star of the show in Guangzhou (CHN), winning four of her five individual events and swimming in one relay to top the prize money list at $51,000. Sjostrom won the 100 m and 200 m Freestyles and the 50 and 100 m Butterflys, and chased home Australia’s Cate Campbell in the 50 m Free in her individual events and swam on the second-place Medley Relay team. That made her the top earner in the meet.
However, that workload was nothing compared to what Hosszu and Andrew did. Hosszu swam five events (including the relay) on the first day, and came back with wins in the 200 m Backstroke and 200 m Medley, plus a leg on the fourth-place Medley Relay team, for a two-day total of eight events and $49,000.
Andrew swam in an astonishing total of nine events: four on Saturday and five on Sunday (including the relay) and although he was third or fourth in all but one of his seven individual events, he won $44,000 in total. On Sunday, he swam in five different events in 95 minutes; amazing.
(Truth is stranger than fiction: both Hosszu and Andrew are plaintiffs in a restraint-of-trade suit against FINA, along with the International Swimming League, whose Web site was silent about FINA distributing $1.02 million in prize money to swimmers this weekend.)
The marks at the meet were good, but not great. There was one new world-leading mark, the women’s 200 m Breaststroke win for China’s Shiwen Ye at 2:22.53, but the no. 2 marks in the world for 2019 were recorded in the 50 m Frees by Ben Proud (GBR: 21.48) and Campbell (24.00, beating Sjostrom).
China won 10 events in the meet, with three wins on the second day after dominating with seven on the opening program. The next stop for the Champions Swim Series will be in Budapest on 11-12 May, and it will be interesting to see the European reaction to this program. Summaries:
FINA Champions Series I
Guangzhou (CHN) ~ 27-28 April 2019
(Full results here)
Men
50 m Freestyle: 1. Ben Proud (GBR), 21.48; 2. Vladimir Morozov (RUS), 21.60; 3. Michael Andrew (USA), 21.97; 4. Anthony Ervin (USA), 22.90.
100 m Freestyle: 1. Pieter Timmers (BEL), 48.60; 2. Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS), 48.75; 3. Vladimir Morozov (RUS), 49.10; 4. Chad le Clos (RSA), 49.25.
200 m Free: 1. Yang Sun (CHN), 1:46.12; 2. Danas Rapsys (LTU), 1:46.28; 3. Shun Wang (CHN), 1:48.08; 4. Le Clos (RSA), 1:50.24.
400 m Free: 1. Y. Sun (CHN), 3:42.75; 2. Gabriele Detti (ITA), 3:46.45; 3. Jack McLaughlin (AUS), 3:47.89; 4. Mykhallo Romanchuk (UKR), 3:48.55.
50 m Backstroke: 1. Kolesnikov (RUS), 24.58; 2. Robert Glinta (ROU), 24.59; 3. Andrew (USA), 24.95; 4. Morozov (RUS), 25.50.
100 m Back: 1. Jiayu Xu (CHN), 52.98; 2. Ryosuke Irie (JPN), 53.25; 3. Glinta (ROU), 53.70; 4. Kolesnikov (RUS), 53.99.
200 m Back: 1. J. Xu (CHN), 1:55.24; 2. Ryosuke Irie (JPN), 1:56.24; 3. Guangyuan Li (CHN), 1:57.42; 4. Danas Rapsys (LTU), 1:58.77.
50 m Breaststroke: 1. Felipe Lima (BRA), 26.68; 2. Joao Gomes Jr. (BRA), 26.70; 3. Andrew (USA), 27.07; 4. Fabio Scozzoli (ITA), 27.11.
100 m Breast: 1. Scozzoli (ITA), 59.74; 2. Anton Chupkov (RUS), 59.83; 3. Arno Kamminga (NED), 1:00.23; 4. Andrew (USA), 1:02.78.
200 m Breast: 1. Chupkov (RUS), 2:07.48; 2. Haiyang Qin (CHN), 2:08.31; 3. Ippei Watanabe (JPN), 2:09.33; 4. Dmitriy Balandin (KAZ), 2:09.37.
50 m Butterfly: 1. Nicholas Santos (BRA), 23.01; 2. Andrew (USA), 23.27; 3. Andrii Govorov (UKR), 23.28; 4. Proud (GBR), 23.34.
100 m Fly: 1. Andrei Minakov (RUS), 51.44; 2. tie, Zhuhao Li (CHN) and Le Clos (RSA), 51,66; 4. Andrew (USA), 52.49.
200 m Fly: 1. Masato Sakai (JPN), 1:56.44; 2. Le Clos (RSA), 1:58.31; 3. Zhuhao Li (CHN), 1:58.51; 4. Zhou Wang (CHN), 1:59.61.
200 m Medley: 1. S. Wang (CHN), 1:57.24; 2. Haiyang Qin (CHN), 1:57.89; 3. Yizhe Wang (CHN), 2:02.61; 4. Andrew (USA), 2:04.26.
Women
50 m Freestyle: 1. Cate Campbell (AUS), 24.00; 2. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 24.11; 3. Pernilla Blume (DEN), 24.28; 4. Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED), 24.47.
100 m Free: 1. Sjostrom (SWE), 52.82; 2. C. Campbell (AUS), 53.00; 3. Blume (DEN), 53.68; 4. Bingjie Li (CHN), 55.26.
200 m Free: 1. Sjostrom (SWE), 1:57.62; 2. B. Li (CHN), 1:59.40; 3. Jianjiahe Wang (CHN), 2:00.93; 4. Katinka Hosszu (HUN), 2:02.56.
400 m Free: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 4:05.16; 2. B. Li (CHN), 4:05.21; 3. Yuhan Zhang (CHN), 4:07.39; 4. J. Wang (CHN), 4:07.57.
50 m Backstroke: 1. Yuanhui Fu (CHN), 27.60; 2. Xiang Liu (CHN), 27.85; 3. Georgia Davies (GBR), 28.08; 4. Emily Seebohm (AUS), 29.40.
100 m Back: 1. Yuanhui Fu (CHN), 59.60; 2. Davies (GBR), 1:00.61; 3. Seebohm (AUS), 1:01.99; 4. Hosszu (HUN), 1:02.99.
200 m Back: Hosszu (HUN), 2:09.05; 2. Xuwei Peng (CHN), 2:09.61; 3. Yaxin Liu (CHN), 2:10.73; 4. Seebohm (AUS), 2:12.14.
50 m Breaststroke: 1. Imogen Clark (GBR), 30.71; 2. Molly Hannis (USA), 30.94; 3. Junyang Feng (CHN), 31.70; 4. Shiwen Ye (CHN), 32.10.
100 m Breaststroke: 1. S. Ye (CHN), 1:07.48; 2. Hannis (USA), 1:08.33; 3. Jingyao Yu (CHN), 1:08.51; 4. Clark (GBR), 1:08.99.
200 m Breast: 1. Shiwen Ye (CHN), 2:22.53; 2. Jingyao Yu (CHN), 2:25.85; 3. Yun He (CHN), 2:27:51; 4. Hannis (USA), 2:31.02.
50 m Butterfly: 1. Sjostrom (SWE), 25.55; 2. Kelsi Dahlia (USA), 25.95; 3. Kromowidjojo (NED), 26.38; 4. C. Campbell (AUS), 26.40.
100 m Fly: 1. Sjostrom (SWE), 57.16; 2. Dahlia (USA), 58.25; 3. Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED), 58.77; 4. Dana Vollmer (USA), 1:00.78.
200 m Fly: 1. Yufei Zhang (CHN), 2:07.36; 2. Dahlia (USA), 2:09.77; 3. Hosszu (HUN), 2:11.95; 4. Yuhan Zhang (CHN), 2:12.28.
200 m Medley: 1. Hosszu (HUN), 2:08.72; 2. Seoyeong Kim (KOR), 2:10.35; 3. Min Zhou (CHN), 2:16.93; 4. Sishi Zhang (CHN), 2:20.07.
Mixed
4×100 m Free: 1. Team 3 (He/CHN, Proud/GBR, Kromowidjojo/NED, Davies/GBR), 3:28.84; 2. Team 2 (Minakov, le Clos, Hosszu, Li), 3:30.55; 3. Team 1 (Morozov, Timmers, Wang, Vollmer), 3:31.40; 4. Team 4 (Kamminga, Andrew, Clark, C. Campbell), 3:31.55.
4×100 m Medley: 1. Team 3 (Kromowidjojo/NED, Gomes Jr./BRA, Dahlia/USA, Proud/GBR), 3:48.55; 2. Team 2 (Sjostrom, Andrew, Santos, Santos, C. Campbell), 3:48.90; 3. Team 4 (Seebohm, Balandin, Minakov, Clark), 3:49.03; 4. Team 1 (Hosszu, Lima, Kamminga, Hannis), 3:58.53.