2018 FINA World Cup Kazan Day 1 Finals: Hosszu’s Monster Schedule

2018 FINA WORLD CUP SERIES – KAZAN

The first night of the first World Cup stop brought some fireworks, with a small, but star-studded field rocking the Aquatics Palace pool. America’s Michael Andrew, South Africa’s Chad Le Clos, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu were just a handful of the big names racing in the 3-day affair taking place in Kazan.

We reported separately how 2 World Cup Series Records went down by the time the night finished, courtesy of Sjostrom and Russia’s Vlad Morozov. Both raced their way to the top of the podium in their respective women’s and men’s 50m freestyle races, with Sjostrom firing off a quick 23.83 while Morozov produced a super fast 21.49 to each claim gold. Both also overtook the previous World Cup Records to put themselves in series history right off the bat on this first stop.

This is the first meet since Hosszu’s post-Shane-Tusup-break-up where she took on her typical monster schedule. Hosszu appeared in 4 individual event finals this evening, starting with the women’s 400m freestyle. The Hungarian won the race in a modest time of 4:12.09 with country woman Zsuzsanna Jakabos making it a 1-2 punch in a mark of 4:14.70. China’s Zhou Chanzhen rounded out the top 3 in a time of 4:16.11.

Hosszu was almost immediately back up in the women’s 50m back sprint, where she managed to collect a silver medal in a time of 28.37 behind Dutch maestro Kira Toussaint. Toussaint touched in 28.18 for the win, creeping ever closer to the Dutch national record from the supersuit era, a 27.77 from Hinkelien Schrender from back in 2009. At the European Championships, Toussaint looked hopeful for a medal, clocking a quick 27.92 in the semi’s, but the former Tennessee swimmer settled for 8th place in a finals mark of 28.80 in Glasgow.

Claiming 50m back bronze this evening was Maria Kameneva, stopping the clock in 28.38, well-off her personal best of 27.70 notched at the European Championships this year. Of note, freestyle ace Ranomi Kromowidjojo maintained her 6th place position from prelims in this off-event, registering a time of 28.83.

The women’s 200 fly was Hosszu’s next victim, where the World Championships bronze medalist in the event got her hand on the wall first in a winning effort of 2:08.93. That’s well-off the 2:06.02 it took the Hungarian to snag that bronze in Budapest, but was enough to hold off teammate Jakabos in tonight’s race. Jakabos finished in 2:09.13 for silver this evening, while Russia’s Lada Bragina finished 9 seconds later in 2:18.88 for bronze.

Hosszu capped off her evening with a run at the 50m freestyle where she settled for 7th in 25.28. Behind the aforementioned Sjostrom’s phenomenal gold medal-winning swim was a pair of Dutch athletes in Kromowidjojo and Femke Heemskerk who took silver and bronze in respective efforts of 24.55 and 24.64.

America’s Andrew was the silver medalist behind Morozov in the 50m free, taking the runner-up spot in a very respectable 21.99. Before that, however, he powered his way to an impressive victory over South Africa’s Le Clos in the men’s 100m fly. Splitting 23.92/28.04, Andrew clocked the only sub-52 second outing of the field in 51.96, a time within half a second of his personal best of 51.53 from Pan Pacs.

Le Clos wound up tying with Russia’s Egor Kuimov to land on the 2nd step fo the podium in 52.00, while anther South African, Ryan Coetzee, registered 52.10 for 4th place.

The men’s 100m breaststroke was another tight affair, with Russia’s Anton Chupkov maintaining his top seed from the morning and beating the field in 59.53. Just behind him was Brazil’s Felipe Lima, his country’s only competitor here in Kazan, while Dutch national record holder Arno Kamminga rounded out the top 3 in 59.99.

Additional Winners:

  • The men’s 400 free was on the sluggish side, with Russia’s Yaroslav Potapov taking the win in 3:54.78.
  • Sole Australian competitor here in Kazan, Mitch Larkin, took the men’s 200m back easily in a time of 1:57.23. He was the only swimmer tonight to notch an effort under the 2-minute barrier. Of note, Larkin holds the World Cup Record with the 1:53.17 he threw down back in 2015. That mark still stands as the Australian, Oceanic and Commonwealth Record in the event.
  • Russian breaststroker Vitalina Simonova was tonight’s 200m winner, clocking 2:23.86 for the gold.

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5 years ago

in 200 fly she had to get her hands on the wall first, just saying, one hand won’t do

Coach Nico
5 years ago

Good to see Pieter Timmers seems to be back after his serious illness with a solid 22.48 in the final of the 50 free.

Teddy
5 years ago

Would love the race by race format with times !

DMacNCheez
Reply to  Teddy
5 years ago

I mentioned this before as well! The other format is a much clearer way to present the information.

Yozhik
5 years ago

Maybe it is time already to call what Hosszu does by right name in order to avoid this false “iron”, “super”, “typical monster” impression.
400FR – 1st place; season ranking: #75
50BK – 2nd place; season ranking: #50
200BU – 1st place; season ranking: #24
50FR. – 7th place; season ranking: #71

Coach John
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

just stop Yozhik…..

Yozhik
Reply to  Coach John
5 years ago

Yes, Sir!

Stefan
Reply to  Coach John
5 years ago

Hold on for just one second, Yozhik might be on to something here. Counting the last two global lcm championships, Hosszu has only won five individual golds, two silver and a bronze. Breaking only 4 CRs and a WR. I’d say that’s pretty average. Besides, all of her gold medal performances over the past few years are quickly forgotten, now that she’s not producing her best times, in a season without a global lcm championship… *sarcasm* 😉

Yozhik
Reply to  Stefan
5 years ago

Sjostrom’s 23.8 has deserved only 5 words in this article. Hosszu with her below average performance that would hardly place her in junior finals received 138 words. Sure, very exciting stuff.
Her gold medals and records deserve the special discussion because I’m pretty sure that we won’t see anything like this after her breaking up with Shane. They both are phony who found each other.

Loretta Race
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

Yozhik – Please note that an entire article was dedicated solely to Sjostrom’s 50m free, as linked in the article above.

Yozhik
Reply to  Loretta Race
5 years ago

Sorry, Loretta. I don’t want to offend you. You are a reporter who is required to submit the material the way the Swimswam’s readers can digest it, as Mr. Keith put it.
It’s just my digestive specifics that are resulting in nausea whenever I’m reading about an “iron” and “monster” stuff about Hosszu’s money making business that has nothing to do with great swimming. Any swimmer who swims competitively after high school does more serious stuff in practices day by day all season long.

Siphiwe Baleka
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

What makes her “Iron” is the fact that she does these races back to back, with little rest, over and over and over again. Yozhik, perhaps you never swam, else you would know how ridiculously difficult it is to do that and each performance is ALWAYS is in the top 100 in the world. Her range of events is the greatest ever. Not even Phelps was as versatile.

Random123
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

lol right. cause she should totally go all out in the 400 free to begin the session…

all about the placements for the world cups

Yozhik
Reply to  Random123
5 years ago

All about it. Harvest time. I don’t mind at all. Just call it as it is.

Yozhik
Reply to  Random123
5 years ago

Totally agree with you. There is no sense to go all out in 400 if the closest competitor can only receive ranking #150 for her performance.

Loretta Race
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

Yozhik – Racing in 4 almost back-to-back events is ‘monster’ by most athletes’ standards. Additionally, in my opinion, the rankings you identify above are more due to the lack of depth at this particular competition, Hosszu knowing that and putting forth commensurate effort, rather than due to any lack of ability on her part.

GO SARAH SJÖSTRÖM
5 years ago

I would say Sarah Sjöström fired off a “super fast” time and Vlad a “quick” time!

Luigi
Reply to  GO SARAH SJÖSTRÖM
5 years ago

When I read that understated “quick” I thought the meet was in SCM.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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