2020 ISL Semi-Final #1 – Day 2 Live Recap

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – SEMIFINAL #1

• Saturday, November 14: 12:00 PM-2:00 PM CET (6 AM-8 AM U.S. Eastern, 8 PM-10PM J+1 Japan)
• Sunday, November 15: 12:00 PM-2:00 PM CET (6 AM-8 AM U.S. Eastern, 8 PM-10PM J+1 Japan)
• Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
• Short Course Meters (SCM) format
• ISL Technical Handbook
• 2020 ISL Scoring Format
• 2020 ISL Prize Money and Bonuses
• How To Watch
• Teams: Energy Standard / Tokyo Frog Kings / London Roar / New York Breakers
• Omega Results 
• Start Lists 

FINAL POINTS AFTER DAY #1

Going into day 2 of ISL 2020 semi-final #1, Energy Standard has a clear lead over their competition, sitting at 291 points to London’s 270, Tokyo’s 208, and New York’s 114. London will continue their campaign towards either maintaining first place or overtaking Energy Standard for the lead. Tokyo will undergo a similar battle as they try to make up the margin between themselves and London in order to live another day in the league.

Some big races are expected today, starting with the 100 free, going until the skins races to close out the session. Following their respective 4×100 medley wins, the Energy Standard women have selected butterfly for the skins and the London men have gone with breaststroke.

Follow along below for a live recap and analysis of today’s session;

Live Recap: Ben Dornan, Live Analysis: Retta Race

DAY 2 EVENTS

WOMEN’S 100 FREE

London Roar’s Freya Anderson just couldn’t keep up with a scorching swim from ENS’ Siobhan Haughey, as the former Michigan Wolverine busted out the fastest swim of her life in 51.12. That checks-in as a new Hong Kong and Asian Record with a big-time 10 points to boot. She jackpotted Chihiro Igarashi of Tokyo to gain some points ground.

Anderson did get 2nd place but needs to step it up on the front half if she wants to overtake the winners thus far, although she was super speedy in her own right with a 51.43 to keep Roar in the mix. Heemskerk was the other ENS swimmer besides Haughey, as Sjostrom is hitting the 100m IM and 50m fly skins today.

MEN’S 100 FREE

Manaudou wins the 100m free for the first time to edge Energy Standard even more into the lead. No jackpots for the Frenchman, but he did team up with Evgeny Rylov for a powerful 1-2 finish to rack up 16 points to keep a gap ahead of Roar.

Markus Thormeyer was a new swimmer in the mix for Tokyo Frog Kings instead of Bruno Fratus. The Canadian had split in the 46-highs as a member of the 400 free relay in earlier matches but was the highest finisher from his team here in 4th with 46.97.

Newcomer Katsumi Nakamura for London Roar, competing in his 2nd individual event after the 50m free yesterday, was essentially a non-factor, touching in 47.30 for 7th and just 2 points.

WOMEN’S 200 FLY

After seeing the spotlight on ENS and London so far today, it was Tokyo’s turn to bring the heat, with a big swim for Suzuka Hasegawa.

Hasegawa pumped out a time of 2:03.95 to beat the next closest competitor of Svetlana Chimrova of NYB by 1 ½ seconds and put 10 points in Tokyo’s direction. Tokyo teammate Sakiko Shimizu was 3rd here and collected 6 points, downgrading the Frog Kings’ 1-2 finish from last week.

Important, however, is that this is still a relatively weak event for London and Energy Standard. The former finished 6th and 8th, with Willmott jackpotted. 

MEN’S 200 FLY

He may have looked around virtually the entire time, but Energy Standard’s Chad Le Clos was able to get to the wall first for Energy Standard in the 200m fly. LA Current’s Tom Shields remains the league’s sole sub-1:50 swimmer this season, as Le Clos touched in 1:50.64. But Le Clos’ win here marks his 7th overall 200m fly victory.

Tokyo’s Tomoru Honda did put up a fight, finishing less than a second behind to snag 7 points ahead of London’s Andreas Vazaios who was nearer to the front on the opening 100m before fading to 6th.

Energy Standard now holds a 40-point advantage over Roar after a handful of events.

WOMEN’S 100 BACK

London’s Toussaint remains on-fire, keeping the 100m back field at bay here after her 50m World Record-setting performance yesterday. 55.90 is what Toussaint put on the board for her fastest result of the season. This ranks Toussaint as the ISL season 2’s 3rd fastest swimmer, snagging 10 points for Roar in the process.

ENS’ Seebohm saw Aussie teammate Kaylee McKeown take down her own national records in the LCM 100 and 200 backstrokes over the past couple of days, but she was laser-focused here, nearly catching Toussaint at the end. Finishing as runner-up for the 4th time in her ISl career, Seebohm snagged 7 points for ENS.

Tokyo did manage to take home 11 points, courtesy of Rio Shirai and Simona Kubova who placed 3rd and 4th.

MEN’S 100 BACK

Another jackpot for Energy Standard with Kliment Kolesnikov closing like a freight train in 25.12 to rock a 49.38 100m back effort here. He is the league leader with his season-best of 49.16.

Kolesnikov collected 15 points to earn more than double that of the next-closest London Roar swimmer of Guilherme Guido.  After some shakiness with the backstroke ledge prior to the start, London’s Guido still held his own, opening in 23.81 but couldn’t match Kolesnikov’s wicked-fast back-half of 25.12.

Irie of Tokyo Frog Kings still got in the mix at 30 years of age, rocking 50.03 and 6 points for the Frog Kings.

WOMEN’S 100 IM

ENS’ Sjostrom stayed out of the 100m free tonight to take on this 100m IM, but wound up being upset by Tokyo’s Runa Imai. Imai just put up the 3rd fastest time of the entire ISL this season, clocking 57.77 PB to fall just .02 outside of Rikako Ikee’s 57.75 100m IM national record that’s been on the books since 2017.

Sjostrom was in the lead at the half, but couldn’t match Imai’s tremendous breaststroke, with Imai’s back half comprised of 31.39 to Sjostrom’s 32.19. Sjostrom settled for 7 points here while teammate Anastaiya Shkurdai placed 6th. Maddy Banic will be paired with Sjostrom in the fly skins at the end of the meet. 

ENS remains ahead of Roar after this event, holding a 44-point advantage.

MEN’S 100 IM

NY Breakers’ captain Michael Andrew earned his first season 2 win here in this 100m IM, posting a near-season-best of 51.66. His first win was a big one, as MA jacked two swimmers in ENS’ Max Stupin and London’s Vini Lanza.

As a confidence booster, Andrew beat out sprint monster Vlad Morozov of Tokyo Frog Kings who touched just .12 behind as runner-up with 7 points. Morozov really needed to win this to help lessen the points differential between them and London.

London went with Lanza and not Scott this time around, but suffered a jackpot with his last place finish.

WOMEN’S 200 FREE

Siobhan Haughey of ENS is keeping her name in the mix for match MVP with yet another win, this time in the 200m free. With another 1:51-low effort, the ISl league leader in this event paired with teammate Femke Heemskerk to crush 19 points total as another big haul for the match leaders.

London’s freestyle ace and two-time European Short Course champion Freya Anderson was well behind the majority of the race, placing 3rd for 6 points. Her counterpart O’Connor came into the wall in sixth allowing London to notch 9 points total.

Tokyo was just off that total from London as Igarashi and Smith went 5-6 to for a total of 7 points. Both NYB swimmers were jackpotted and produced no points here.

MEN’S 200 FREE

Earning his paycheck big-time this match is London Roar’s Duncan Scott, with the 23-year-old busting out the 200 free of his life in a time of 1:40.76. That brought the hammer on ENS newcomer Danas Rapsys, who was with Scott and Matsumoto the entire race but couldn’t overtake the Brit and settled for silver and 7 points.

For Scott, his time here checks-in as a monster ISL record, overtaking Rapsys’ previous time of 1:41.23. Scott smashed that with his 1:40.76 to represent the only swimmer under 1:41 this season.

Scott wowed the crowd yesterday when he denied Kosuke Hagino a usual win in the 200m IM. His teammate Tom Dean also beat out Rapsys in the 400m free yesterday and placed 4th here in 1:42.36 for 5 points to give LON 15 points total from this event.

Matsumoto grabbed 6 points for Tokyo in a time just over his own national record.

WOMEN’S 50 FLY

MEN’S 50 FLY

A stacked field did not disappoint, as the top 5 finishers were only separated by .14 in this men’s 50m fly final. Tokyo Frog King Takeshi Kawamoto surged to the wall first in 22.50 to grab 10 points, just .01 ahead of 200m fly victor here Chad Le Clos, while London’s Marius Kusch posted 22.53 for 3rd place.

Last match Kawamoto suffered a silver fate behind 40-year-old Nicholas Santos of Iron, so it must feel good to get on top this match when his team desperately needs points to even be in the realm of catching Roar. After this event, Tokyo sits less than 60 points away from Roar’s 2nd place status.

WOMEN’S 100 BREAST

London Roar’s Alia Atkinson simply owned this race from start to finish, opening in 29.62 and closing in 33.04 to produce the fastest time of the season by a mile. Her time here of 1:02.66 is the only sub-1:03 of the season and is quicker than nearly-undefeated Lilly King of Cali Condors has been, with the American holding the former best of the season in 1:03.16.

Atkinson’s fastest of the season entering this race was marked by her 1:03.53 but tonight was just .3 outside the world record as an indication of this veteran’s determination. And she was well-rewarded in the points department, jackpotting 3 swimmers for a valuable 15 points.

Young Italian teen Benedetta Pilato of ENS was next in line but nearly a second back in 1:03.55 for 7 points. That’s a new Italian Record.

MEN’S 100 BREAST

Adam Peaty scorched a new World Record en route to taking this men’s 100m breast, edging out ENS’ Ilya Shymanovich in the process. Peaty posted 55.49 to demolish his previous season-best of 56.38 to overwrite Cameron van der Burgh’s WR of 55.61 from the 2009 supersuited era.

This is an important victory for Roar who saw Peaty lead the 50m breast yesterday in a new British Record to keep his squad fired up with teammate Toussaint’s 50m back WR.

Peaty’s record jackpotted 3 swimmers, including ENS’ Andrey Zhilkin to direct 15 points to LON in this narrowing team race to the final.

4×100 MIXED FREE RELAY

London wrapped up its 3rd consecutive event win to carry momentum here in this relay, as the combo of Vekovishchev, Scott, Hopkin, and Anderson clocked a time of 3:15.17 to hold off a superpower lineup from ENS which included the 200m and 100m free winner of tonight Siobhan Haughey on anchor. The time for London is good enough to give them the top time of the season, overtaking Energy Standard’s previous best.

Anderson and Haughey matched effort with 51.04 on the final leg, but Vekovishchev’s lead of 47.00 helped put them a fingernail ahead, while Scott’s 45.92 rivaled Kolesnikovs 45.63. Hopkin’s 51.22 to Blume’s 51.77 was the dealmaker for Roar, giving them a critical 18 points over ENS’ 14.

Tokyo Frog Kings settled for 3rd here but they were over 4 seconds off the leaders, presenting the fact once again that these big point-earning opportunities of the relays are a weak point for this new ISL team.

Women’s 400 IM

Yui Ohashi looked winded after this 400m IM, but she remains 5-for-5 in event wins to further exert her dominance for Tokyo Frog Kings. Ohashi notched a time of 4:23.25 to overtake the top time of the season from Cali Condors’ Melanie Margalis who has left the bubble and won’t be in the semifinal.

Ohashi’s time garnered her 12 points but won’t be enough to put a big enough dent in the London lead unless something absolutely insane happens in the skins.

London’s Sydney Pickrem picked up the 2nd spot here in 7 points with a new Canadian record to boot.

Team Score Update

1. Energy Standard – 479
2. London Roar – 459
3. Tokyo Frog Kings – 362
4. New York Breakers – 210

MEN’S 400 IM

Just as teammate Ohashi extended her winning streak, Hagino got it done in this 400m IM by over a second to carry 9 points into Tokyo Frog Kings’ column. He’s been as fast as 4:01.41 but tonight it took just 4:02.40 to keep ENS’ Max Litchfield at bay. Hagino’s victory tonight was his 4th straight.

Litchfield wrapped up 7 points for ENS while his teammate Max Stupin was 4th to add 5 and give 12 total.

In bad news for London, they earned just 3.5 points here compared to that ENS 12, with Dean and Vazaios well off the leaders in the last two slots.

WOMEN’S 50 SKINS – BUTTERFLY

ROUND 1:

ENS takes 2 swimmers into the next round, led by Maddy Banic and teammate Sjostrom. The pair will be joined by a NY Breaker in the 100m fly victory Surkova. However, LON just has one competitor with Kameneva. Sjostrom has won two sets of skins thus far this season and looks to extend that streak if she can pull it out into the next round.

ROUND 2:

Putting down the hammer in round 2 was Sjostrom and Banic, meaning it’s an all-ENS final in this women’s 50m fly. That shuts out possible point-earner London Roar. Adding salt to the wound for Roar was the fact that London’s Kameneva had her points stolen by Sjostrom.

ROUND 3:

In this all-ENS final it was Sjostrom who got it done for the win, posting a 3rd round time of 25.91 with a strong last 15 meters. The Swede is now a 3-time skins winner this season, contributing to her potential repeat-ISL MVP campaign.

MEN’S 50 SKINS – BREASTSTROKE

ROUND 1:

ROUND 2:

ROUND 3:

And Peaty smashes another 25-pointer to get on the board with the skins win. 25.70 is what it took to make defeating Belarusian Shymanovich of ENS look relatively easy. Peaty’s win nabbed 14 points to seal up his skins victory.

CLUB STANDINGS AFTER DAY 2: