2014 Dubai World Cup – Le Clos nearly breaks 100 fly world record at Dubai day 2 finals

The first cluster of the FINA World Cup circuit wraps up today in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. After the first cluster, which consists of the Doha and Dubai meets, points totals are tallied with cash bonuses for the winners of the cluster. That means if Katinka Hosszu and Daniel Gyurta can hold on to their points leads, they’ll earn extra monetary prizes following today’s competition.

We’ll have live, event-by-event recaps of the Dubai meet here, so keep refreshing the page and join in the conversation in the comments section.

2014 Dubai World Cup – Day 2

• World Cup Points update
• World Cup money earners update
• Start lists for Dubai
• Live stream
• Live results

Men’s 1500 Free

Hungarian swimmers have been on a roll so far in Dubai, and that continued with the first event of Monday’s finals. Gergo Kis won the men’s 1500 free, just as he did in Doha, and he beat his countryman David Verraszto on the way there.

Kis was 14:53.06, overcoming Verraszto in the final 100 meters. Verraszto, who trailed early but passed up Kis through the middle of the race, finished in 14:54.69.

Third place went to Tunisia’s Ahmed Mathlouthi at 14:58.97.

Women’s 400 IM

It won’t be a second-straight IM world record sweep for Katinka Hosszu. The Hungarian won the timed final 400 IM, but wasn’t able to break the world record she set just a few days ago in Doha. Hosszu went 4:22.06 to win easily. That’s 1.2 seconds slower than she was in Doha – is she more fatigued right now? Is she saving up to go after a world record in a later event? We’ll find out soon.

Second place was Spain’s Mireia Belmonte at 4:27.66, and the third-place check goes to Caitlin Leverenz of the US at 4:30.72.

Women’s 100 Free

More repeat winners in Dubai. Inge Dekker won her third event of the meet with the 100 free, trying to match her total of 4 from Doha. Currently second in World Cup points on the women’s side, Dekker went 52.01 to win the race with ease over Australia’s Marieke D’Cruz (53.03).

For a sprint free race, things were surprisingly spread out. After D’Cruz, the next finisher was all the way back in the 54s, with Lena Kreundl going 54.34. South Africa’s Lehesta Kemp was a few tenths back for fourth, and then things dropped off into the 56s.

Men’s 200 Free

It’s the usual suspects atop the men’s 200 free, too. Australia’s Thomas Fraser-Holmes, who led the series points briefly in Doha, went 1:42.54 to beat European champ Velimir Stjepanovic of Serbia. Fraser-Holmes and Stjepanovic have been battling in all of the mid-distance freestyles on the Cup tour since winning big international titles in this race, Fraser-Holmes at Pan Pacs and Stjepanovic at Euros.

Third went to Poland’s Pawel Korzeniowski at 1:43.50 with South African Leith Shankland just off the medal stand.

Women’s 50 Breast

Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson has ruled the sprint breaststrokes on the series so far, and she completed a sweep of the 50 and 100 breasts in Dubai. Atkinson was 29.12, once again beating American Breeja Larson for the first-place paycheck.

Larson went 29.98 for second place. Third was well over a second back, with Austria’s Lisa Zaiser going 31.31 to beat out Laura Sogar for bronze.

Men’s 100 Breast

Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta was perhaps the biggest star of this meet’s first day, winning the 50 and 200 breasts and setting a big world record in the 200. He followed those swims up with a win in the 100 breast, a race that was surprisingly close compared to the others in the lineup.

Gyurta went 57.11. The battle for silver was a great one, with Italy’s Fabio Scozzoli going 57.40 to nip Marco Koch of Germany by .02. Koch’s 57.42 was enough to knock American Cody Miller (57.79) out of the top three.

Men’s 100 Fly

Men’s points leader Chad le Clos narrowly missed a world record bonus of his own, coming within .11 of the fastest time ever swum in the men’s 100 fly. Le Clos went 48.59 for his third win of the meet so far.

Not terribly far behind le Clos was rising American Tom Shields. Shields was 49.00, just two tenths off his own American record in the event that he set during last year’s World Cup series.

Germany’s Steffen Deibler picked up third-place honors, going 49.33 to finish behind Shields.

Women’s 100 Back

Katinka Hosszu won her second event of the night in the 100 back, but once again came up short of the world record bonus. Her 55.77 was about half a second off the four-year-old world record held by Shiho Sakai of Japan.

Still, she won by more than two seconds over Ukranian Daryna Zevina, who was 57.52. Colombia’s Carolina Colorado was 58.73 for the final prize money slot.

Men’s 50 Back

Eugene Godsoe got his first win of Dubai, going 23.00 to win the 50 back. That’s both four tenths behind the world record and four tenths ahead of the field as Godsoe equaled his points total from Doha.

Germany’s Christian Diener took second place, touching out Australia’s Bobby Hurley 23.40 to 23.41. Hurley’s teammate Ashley Delaney just missed out on the top three, going 23.69 for fourth place.

Women’s 200 Fly

The 200 fly brought a third win for Katinka Hosszu, who has now matched her win total from Dubai. She went 2:04.68, enough to win easily, though she was still perhaps saving her energy for another world record run in a later event.

Hosszu won over Germany’s Franziska Hentke (2:06.07), leading wire-to-wire for gold. Hentke faded to third during the third 50 but tore past Mireia Belmonte over the final 50 meters to pick up second. Belmonte wound up third in 2:06.19.

Men’s 200 IM

Chad le Clos is putting himself back in the drivers seat for the cluster points bonus, winning the 200 IM in 1:51.56 over one of his top challengers, Thomas Fraser-Holmes of Australia. Le Clos rode a big front-half to the win here, leading the whole way, while Fraser-Holmes had to dig himself out of an early hole after hitting the 50-turn in fourth place.

The Australian came back on the field, all except le Clos anyway, and finished second in 1:53.77. Third went to Germany’s Marco Koch, who put up the fastest breaststroke split of the field to nip Hungary’s David Verraszto for third by a tenth of a second. Koch was 1:55.19 to Koch’s 1:55.29. Just a few tenths back of them was American Cody Miller.

Women’s 400 Free

After a couple runner-up finishes today, Spain’s Mireia Belmonte broke through with a win in the women’s 400 free. Her 4:02.05 was enough to beat Liechtenstein’s Julia Hassler by a little more than a second and a half for the first-place, $1500 paycheck.

Hassler went 4:03.73, leading at the 100-mark but then running second to Belmonte for the rest of the race. Third from start to finish was Hungary’s Evelin Verraszto, who finished quite a ways back at 4:09.87.

Men’s 50 Free

Josh Schneider continues his sweep of the splash and dash so far on the circuit, going 21.11 to knock off George Bovell for the 50 free win. Bovell, who competes for Trinidad & Tobago, went 21.31.

That was just enough to get by Finland’s Ari-Pekka Liukkonen for silver. Liukkonen was 21.39, and Germany’s Steffen Deibler was just .01 back of bronze.

Women’s 200 Breast

Breeja Larson won her second 200 breast of the tour so far, going 2:20.02 for the big first-place paycheck. The Doha race only had a few swimmers entered, but in Dubai, the final heat was full, making for some stiffer competition.

Austria’s Lisa Zaiser was second, going 2:23.48, and Laura Sogar was third after just missing out on the money in the 50 breast. Sogar’s 2:24.95 was 8 seconds better than the next-fastest swimmer.

Women’s 100 IM

Katinka Hosszu won her 8th race of the meet so far, going 57.75 in the 100 IM. She set the world record again in the preliminaries, but didn’t better that mark again in the finals. Still, she had plenty enough to win the event and remain undefeated in Dubai after winning 7 of her 10 races in Doha.

Second went to breaststroke superstar Alia Atkinson at 58.26. Hosszu and Atkinson actually ran second and third at the halfway mark, with Aleksanrda Urbanczyk leading the way, but Urbanczyk fell off to fourth over the final 50 meters as the top two and American Caitlin Leverenz passed her up. Leverenz was 59.86 for third and Urbanczyk 1:00.00.

Men’s 200 Back

Germany’s Christian Diener picked up the win in the final men’s race of the night, going 1:49.14 for the 200 back title. Diener rolled to a lead of more than half a second over the first 50 and he only increased the lead from there.

Once again, Tom Shields put his outstanding underwaters to work, jumping into the 200 back from his native butterfly races and earning second-place honors. Shields was 1:51.92, making a big comeback over the final 100 to take second.

Japan’s Hayate Matsubara had a late-race comeback of his own to wind up third in 1:52.62.

Women’s 50 Fly

Inge Dekker has matched her four-win total from Doha, taking the same four races in Dubai. The Dutch sprinter went 24.59 to win the 50 fly here and complete a sweep of the 50 and 100 distances of fly and free. Once again, she led Australian sprinter Marieke D’Cruz, who seems to be second to Dekker nearly everytime she swims. D’Cruz went 25.74.

Third went to Katinka Hosszu at 26.14, her 9th medal race of the meet and the first race she didn’t win. Jamaican breaststroker Alia Atkinson was fourth in 26.63.

Mixed 4×50 Free Relay

South Africa won the mixed free relay, going 1:34.22. That event kicked off with a huge leadoff leg of 21.45 from Roland Schoeman. That’s actually faster than Schoeman went in the open 50 free tonight and would have nearly propelled him into medal contention had he swum that time earlier. Leith Shankland continued with the second-fastest men’s split overall (Schoeman was fastest, flat-start and all) at 21.50. The other members of the relay were Lehesta Kemp and Taneal Baptiste, with Kemp putting up the fastest female split overall at 24.81.

Austria was second, with Gottfried Eisenberger leading the men (21.91) and Lisa Zaiser the women (25.05). The Austrian’s finished in 1:35.24, and Switzerland was third in 1:36.45.