World Cup points update: Atkinson & Gyurta make charges in Beijing

The series leaders are all but uncatchable, but a pair of breaststrokers made solid headway in tracking down the rest of the field during the Beijing World Cup.

Jamaican Alia Atkinson and Hungarian Daniel Gyurta each put up the second-highest point totals in their respective genders. With that come second-place standings in the third and final cluster, which pays out big bonuses near the end of this month.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu and South Africa’s Chad le Clos were, of course, the biggest point-getters, and they’ve each pretty much sewn up repeat series titles. Hosszu’s 757 points lead all women by 460, and le Clos sits at 354, more than 100 up on Gyurta.

Each meet on the World Cup circuit gives out point bonuses for the top three performances, per FINA points, at the meet. We noted yesterday that Hosszu stood in jeopardy of breaking a streak in which she’s won the top bonus at each of the World Cup’s 4 stops. But Hosszu came through once again, winning the 100 IM and taking the top performance bonus by just 2 FINA points over Atkinson.

Here were the top 3 performances of the meet in each gender:

Women

1. Katinka Hosszu, 100 IM: 58.11 (966 FINA points)
2. Alia Atkinson, 50 breast: 29.15 (964 FINA points)
3. Ye Shiwen, 100 IM: 58.36 (953 FINA points)

Men

1. Chad le Clos, 50 fly: 22.03 (969 FINA points)
2. Daniel Gyurta, 200 breast: 2:03.40 (935 FINA points)
3. Sun Yang, 400 free: 3:37.10 (934 FINA points)

Also worth noting: here are the top 6 in each gender for the third cluster. There are still two meets to go in the cluster, but the top 6 finishers will get big cash bonuses at the conclusion of the cluster, starting with $50,000 for the top finishers.

Women:

1. Katinka Hosszu: 114
2. Alia Atkinson: 48
3. Inge Dekker: 45
4. Mireia Belmonte Garcia: 33
5. Sally Hunter: 30
6. Madison Wilson: 24

Men

1. Chad le Clos: 72
2. Daniel Gyurta: 48
3. Steffen Deibler: 36
4. Xu Jiayu: 33
4. Daiya Seto: 33
6. Myles Brown: 30
6. Mitchell Larkin: 30

Full day 2 recap from Beijing

Money Lists after Beijing

Women’s Point Standings

Men’s Point Standings