2015 FINA World Cup Moscow
- August 11-12
- Finals 11 a.m EST
- Schedule/Live results
- FINA Live Stream
The first finals session of the FINA World Cup Series will take place today in Moscow. Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu is already back at it and will contest several events during tonight’s finals.
MEN’S 100m FREESTYLE
After an impressive showing at the 2015 FINA World Championships South African swimmer Chad Le Clos is back in action.
Le Clos won the first event on the 2015 FINA world cup circuit this morning, touching first in the men’s 100m freestyle in 48.16. Russian swimmer Nikita Lobinstev finished second behind him in 48.48, just out-touching fellow Russian Danila Izotov who rocked a 48.59.
Jeremy Stravius and Fabien Gilot finished fourth and fifth respectively. Behind French sprinter Gilot was America’s Tim Phillips in 49.42.
WOMEN’S 200m FREESTYLE
The top FINA World Cup swimmer is back to her winning ways after one of her best international showings to date.
Katinka Hosszu of Hungary won her first event of the night in 1:56.83 after a tight battle with Australia’s Bronte Barratt. Hosszu led start-to-finish with Barratt right on her tail the entire race.
Barratt finished second in 1:57.15 over a full second ahead of third place finisher Melanie Margalis from the United Sates.
MEN’S 50m BREASTSTROKE
Cameron Van Der Burgh was under 27-seconds in the men’s 50m breaststroke again this season after a season-best of 26.62 at the FINA World Championships.
Van Der Burgh swam a 26.96 to run down Peter John Stevens who represents Slovakia yet trains at Tennessee. Stevens was a 27.46.
Finishing third was Brendan McHugh in 27.71. He narrowly beat Kirill Prigoda of Russia for a podium finish as he clocked in four one-hundredths behind in 27.75.
WOMEN’S 100m BREASTSTROKE
An American 1-2 finish highlighted the women’s 100m breaststroke which was won by recent standout Katie Meili of SwimMAC Carolina.
Meili, who most recently won gold in the 100m breaststroke at the Pan American Games in Toronto, took down a tough field with a time of 1:06.68.
Meili was the only swimmer under 1:07 this evening. Breeja Larson was second behind Meili in 1:07.19, putting some distance between herself and Vitalina Siminova of Russia who grabbed bronze in 1:07.51.
Shi Jinglin of China was fourth in 1:07.99.
WOMEN’S 100m BUTTERFLY
In a dead heat for gold Claire Donahue of the United States and Madeline Groves of Australia both put up a time of 58.08.
Donahue was ahead with 10-meters to go, but as they approached the wall it looked as though Groves moved past her. By getting every inch out of her touch, Donahue managed to hold on and tie Groves.
Natalie Lovtcova ended up third behind the two winners with a time of 58.42. She was the only other swimmer under 59-seconds as Svetlana Chimrova was fourth in 59.17. Danielle Villars was the only other swimmer under one-minute.
MEN’S 100m BACKSTROKE
After finishing second in the 100m backstroke at worlds, Camille Lacourt of France managed a victory in Russia tonight with a 53.44 performance.
Lacourt won by a sizable margin as Grigory Tarasevich of Russia reached into the wall for second in 54.01. He just narrowly out-touched Quah Zheng Wen of Singapore who rocked a 54.03.
Josh Beaver of Australia was fourth in 54.30.
WOMEN’S 50m BACKSTROKE
The 100 and 200m backstroke world champion Emily Seebohm of Australia managed to grab a 50m backstroke win tonight with a swift 27.90. In doing so she managed to out-touch Mie Nielsen of Denmark who was one of her main rivals at the world championships.
Nielsen was 0.15 seconds behind Seebohm in 28.05.
Well behind the two leaders was Daria Ustinova of Russia who rocked a 28.52 to take home the bronze medal.
That left Katinka Hosszu off the podium with a fourth place finish in 28.54.
MEN’S 200m BUTTERFLY
Viktor Bromer of Denmark made a late push in the race in order to touch for gold with a time of 1:55.03. Bromer was in fourth at the 100 wall, but quickly moved up to second with 50 to go. At that point he flew by Aleksandr Kudashev of Russia in order to snag the win.
Kudashev ended up second in 1:57.09 with Chase Kalisz of the United States third in 1:57.66.
Kalisz demonstrated a similar strategy to Bromer, making his move on the back-half of the race.
WOMEN’S 200m IM
Make it two for Katinka Hosszu.
The new 200m IM world record holder from Hungary grabbed her second win of the evening with a 2:10.68. That time is over four seconds slower than the 2:06.12 that she swam to win the event at worlds.
Hosszu touched first after the breaststroke leg and never looked back. Prior to that Zsuzsanna Jakobos of Hungary led the way. Jakobos ended up second in 2:12.15 to secure a 1-2 Hungarian finish in the race.
Rising Vietnamese star Thi Anh Vien Nguyen rounded out the podium in 2:12.33.
MEN’S 400m FREESTYLE
Myles Brown of south Africa led the race up until the 350-meter mark where he was passed by French swimmer Jordan Pothain.
With 50 to go, Brown once again turned on the jets splitting a 27.68 on the last 50 in order to win with a time of 3:48.52. Pothain only managed a 29.18 on the last 50 and finished second to Brown in 3:49.66.
In doing so he held off advances from fellow French swimmer Damien Joly. Joly was in third for the entire race, clocking in at 3:50.55 in order to take home his bronze.
Joris Bouchaut was the final Frenchman in the field, and he ended up fourth behind Joly in 3:51.02.
WOMEN’S 50m FREESTYLE
Danish sprinter Jeanette Ottesen won the women’s splash-and-dash by over half a second here in Moscow, touching in at 24.62 for the win.
Second behind her was Dar’Ya Stepanyuk of Ukraine putting up a time of 25.10. That was just good for silver was Natalie Lovtcova of Russia put the pressure on her with a 25.17 bronze medal performance.
Katinka Hosszu finished fourth for the second time tonight in a 50m-race, clocking in at 25.40 to finish just 0.23 seconds shy of a bronze medal.
MEN’S 200m BREASTSTROKE
Marco Koch of Germany backed up his 200m breaststroke world title with a world cup victory tonight, sporting a very fast 2:08.77.
Also quick was Cody Miller of the United States. Miller managed a 2:09.08 tonight ahead of fellow American Nic Fink. Fink finished less than half a second behind Miller in 2:09.51.
Miller was in first for the majority of the race but Koch split a 33.08 on the last 50 in order to get ahead of Miller and claim gold.
The top three were the only other swimmers in the field to break 2:10 in the final.
WOMEN’S 200m BACKSTROKE
Sixteen-year-old Daria Ustinova took down 200m backstroke world champion Emily Seebohm of Australia in order to claim gold tonight in 2:08.21.
Ustinova was well ahead of Seebohm who finished 1.4 seconds behind her in 2:09.61. Ustinova led start to finish, dominating the race against all her competitors.
Ukrain’s Daryna Zevina rounded out the podium with a 2:11.78.
MEN’S 50m BUTTERFLY
Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov took the win in the men’s 50m fly, topping the field with time of 23.30.  USA’s Tim Phillips touched closely behind for 2nd in 23.55, followed by Evgeny Sedov in 23.50 for 3rd.
In Kazan just a few days ago, Govorov finished in 5th place in the men’s 50m butterfly final, clocking a time 23.18, so he was just a tad slower in this race. Phillips failed to make the final in Kazan, so a second place finish in Moscow is certain a step in the right direction.
WOMEN’S 800m FREESTYLE
Of course this event saw a historic swim in Kazan, where America’s Katie Ledecky charged her way to a brand new World Record time of 8:07.39, representing the first time a female swimmer has dipped beneath the 8:10 threshold.
There were two Americans slated to swim the 800m race in Moscow, however, Becca Mann was a scratch for the event, leaving an empty lane next to Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu.  The other American was Katy Campbell who wound up 7th in 8:54.95.
China’s Zhang Yuhan touched the wall first, registering a time of 8:30.60, followed by two Italians.  Diletta Carli finished in 8:32.12 for second place, while teammate Marina Caramignoli snuck into third in 8:37.03.  Something you don’t see everyday is Hosszu finishing last in a race, but she did so today, touching in 9:00.79 as the only swimmer not able to snap 9-minutes.  She may very well have been using this as a warm-down swim of sorts, given her monster schedule on the day.
MEN’S 400m IM
Hungary’s David Verraszto snagged the top prize in the men’s 400m IM event, touching the wall in the only sub-4:15 time in the race.  Verraszto’s 4:14.89 claimed the victory, but was quite a ways off of his 4:09.90 showing in Kazan, which brought home the silver.
Italy’s Federico Turrini was less than a second behind, finishing in 4:15.10 for 2nd, followed by Russia’s Alexander Osipenko who nabbed bronze in a time of 4:16.98.
About 20 girls would be excited if she dropped 100 free cause at least that many are hoping for that spot…..maybe more!
The problem is that a girl in 53 high can represent USA at olympic games in the 100 free. That’s a disgrace to the greatest swimming nation on earth.
That’s why I suggest USA swimming to put minimum times to do each trials until 2020 at least in both 100 free races if people want to qualify. It would wake up some men and women in training in the next years. A long term plan to rebuild your sprint is also necessary but in short term that would be useful.
Looks like we’ll see Missy in the Chartres stop of the WC this weekend.
Also talk of Franklin dropping the *100 free* @ Rio…Bobo will be very pleased to hear that 😉
http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2015/08/11/missy-franklin-swimming-world-championships-olympics-todd-schmitz-coach/
Todd Schmitz assessed Franklin’s meet ahead of Franklin’s next competition, a FINA World Cup in Paris this weekend.
“But I think that there’s a legitimate shot that she can go in and be competitive in more than one event, but I think that sometimes, you know, that 100m free’s going to be tough. Right now there’s three females in the world that are already going 52s consistently. Missy’s been 52 in a relay. She’s been 53.4, I believe, or 53.3 in… Read more »
2 amazing news you give me here! 🙂 Thanks.
Missy in Chartres.
And Missy who would drop the 100 free. Finally a beginning of common sense. Hopefully it will happen.
200 free/100 back/200 back plus the 3 relays, that’s enough.
The biggest names must swim only the events in which they can win medals and especially win gold medals.
Cool end of the day for Hosszu
2.16 in the 200 back 🙄 Cool warm-down
9 minutes in the 800 free 🙄 Very cool warm-down
It would have been more fun to see just the first legs of the WC in SCM like last time.
Why do they start the world cup circuit like 2 days after world’s just ended
Well, World Champs were in Kazan so I assume the Russian Federation and Fina thought they would have more swimmers attending right after the World Champs ended. Plus, some swimmers may have not hit their taper properly so they can go to Moscow and prove themselves one more time.
Yes,
EUFAN had it correct. That is the reasoning behind the decision of starting world cup immediately after the World Championships. If I remember it correct the idea of doing so came from the Netherlands. They tried this first time after Barcelona in 2013 when World Cup 1 was held in Eindhoven.
This year it is clearly made for persuading swimmers heading for home to enter. Most of them likely must fly via Moscow. The next World Cup is also very soon in Chartres, France (August 15-16). Then comes a pause until world cup continues in late September in Asia
Great job by young Frenchman Jordan Pothain in the 400 free.
First time under 3.50.
Once again, amazing race strategy by Seebohm in the 200 back.
It worked at worlds with a huge last 50.
This time no because she has slept too long but her last 50 in 30.83 was astonishing.
31.29/33.77/33.72/30.83! 1.05.06 at the 100!
30.63/31.94/32.60/33.04 for the winner Ustinova
I wouldn’t be surprised if Le Clos swam 50.44 tomrrow in the 100 fly. 🙂