Shields, Le Clos dominate Hong Kong points for men, Hosszu leads women by over 300

With the third of seven stops completed on the World Cup tour, Chad le Clos and Katinka Hosszu are in great shape to repeat as series champions in the points.

Hosszu extended her lead by another 100 points in Hong Kong without even earning a world record bonus, and she now leads Inge Dekker by 331. Hosszu scored 162 in Hong Kong alone.

Le Clos still leads for the men, but his lead is just over 25 points, with Tom Shields using Hong Kong to close in. Shields was the overall points winner of the Hong Kong meet, putting up 81 points to le Clos’s 72.

The series gives out cash bonuses for the winners of each cluster – Hong Kong kicks off the second cluster, which closes this weekend in Moscow, so Shields and Hosszu are the front-runners for those big bonuses. One interesting piece to watch will be whether Le Clos ramps up his event lineup to try to take the biggest bonus in Moscow. Le Clos has started the series with a lighter event lineup to prevent himself from burning out late on the tour. But the difference between the $50,000 first-place cluster bonus and the $35,000 check for second place might be enough to convince him to take on a more daunting load in Moscow.

The points are determined from individual top-three finishes, world record bonuses (of which there were none in Hong Kong) and performance bonuses. That means the 3 best overall performances in FINA points earn point bonuses for that athlete.

As has been the trend this season, the top two male performances came from the same race, the 100 fly. Le Clos nearly took down the world record and earned the top bonus, while Shields took second with the second-best swim of the entire meet, per FINA points.

There was a tight battle for the third spot – Marco Koch and Daniel Gyurta actually tied in FINA points with their 200 breaststrokes, but Koch was actually .01 faster and earned the third bonus based on that.

Hosszu was the top performer for the women with her 100 back, and Alia Atkinson nipped Inge Dekker for the second points bonus with her 100 breast.

Performance Bonuses:

Women:

• 1st (24 bonus points): Katinka Hosszu, 100 back – 55.34 – 994 FINA points
• 2nd (18 bonus points): Alia Atkinson, 100 breast – 1:03.23 – 959 FINA points
• 3rd (12 bonus points): Inge Dekker, 100 fly – 56.03 – 948 FINA points

Men:

• 1st (24 bonus points): Chad le Clos, 100 fly – 48.56 – 995 FINA points
• 2nd (18 bonus points): Tom Shields, 100 fly – 49.02 – 967 FINA points
• 3rd (12 bonus points): Marco Koch, 200 breast – 2:02.50 – 955 FINA points

Full day 1 recap

Money lists after Hong Kong

Women’s Point Standings

Men’s Point Standings