4 Big Things From Day 2 of ISL’s Match #5

2020 International Swimming League

• Friday, October 30th: 3-5pm CET/9-11am U.S. Central
• Saturday, October 30th: 12-2pm CET/6-8am U.S. Central
• 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
• Omega Results
• Teams: London Roar/DC Trident/LA Current/Tokyo Frog Kings

Club Standings After Match #5

Today’s match sealed the deal for London as they hold onto their lead ahead of LA Current. The teams delivered some extremely fast swimming today again, so here’s 4 big storyline standouts from today:

1. Shields Wins Fly Skins, Misses Out On Individual Win In 50 Fly

Tom Shields has been one of the standout athletes during this ISL season so far. He began his season by causing major upset in the men’s 100m fly on Day 1 of Match 1, beating Caeleb Dressel with a time of 49.58.

Today he didn’t manage to take down Takeshi Kawamoto in the 50m butterfly, with the Tokyo swimmer grabbing the top spot in 22.38. In the individual 50, Shields went 22.47.

However, he responded to that second-place finish with a huge swim on the first 50 of the butterfly skins, setting a new lifetime best of 22.32, 0.06 better than his previous mark of 22.38 from the 2016 World Short Course Championships.

He was second behind Kawamoto in round 2, posting 23.08, but once again delivered a win for LA Current in Round 3 touching in 23.24 ahead of Kawamoto’s 23.86.

He continues to prove his worth for Current and has now got 3-for-3 wins in the 100m and 200m butterfly from all three matches he has raced. He also took away the MVP title for this match with 62.5 points, adding a $10,000 bonus onto his winnings.

2. An ISL First As 5 Women Race Round 2 Of Skins

It was an ISL first as 5 swimmers entered the second round of the skins race today on the women’s side after Annie Lazor and Anastasia Gorbenko tied for fourth place.

In round 1 breaststroke veteran Alia Atkinson was the only swimmer under the 30-second mark in 29.61. From there, she carried on this trend into round 2 by going 29.89 ahead of 2nd place finisher Gorbenko.

It was a really impressive performance from Gorbenko, who only added 0.01 to her split between rounds 1 and 2 (30.20 and 30.21), comfortably securing her spot in the final ahead of Annie Lazor (30.46).

Ultimately though Atkinson came out on top, only narrowly holding off Gorbenko to win in 30.28, with the LA Current swimmer Gorbenko second in 30.38. Atkinson took home a monstrous 33 points for London Roar by winning all three rounds.

3. Tokyo Deliver Another 1-2 Finish In Women’s 200 Fly

Suzuka Hasegawa and Sakiko Shimizu replicated their 1-2 finish in this event again just as they did on day 2 of Match #3. The Tokyo Frog Kings swimmers have proven to be huge assets for their team, and in this event alone delivered a combined 26 points on both occasions.

Hasegawa set a new ISL record in Match#3 in 2:03.12, improving Hali Flickinger‘s 2:03.81 from last season. She attacked the race and led from the beginning, touching today in 2:03.38 – (her PB is 2:09.26 from 2017).

This is where jackpotting really comes into play, as both time Hasegawa stole the points from the bottom 4 finishers, meaning at least one team went away completely empty-handed (London Roar in #5 and Aqua Centurions in #3).

Shimizu also nabbed the win in the 200m breaststroke yesterday as she held off a determined Annie Lazor to win in 2:18.88, gathering another 9 points.

4. National Records Fall

We saw a number of national records go down today, starting with a new French Record by Beryl Gastaldello in the 100m freestyle. She has been an absolute gun so far this season, and today was no different as she went 51.30 here, taking down Marie Wattel‘s mark of 51.45 which she set back in December last year.

New Zealand swimmer Helena Gasson continued her record-setting trend today by adding another under her belt today in the 400IM. The previous record of 4:34.05, set by Helen Norfolk, has stood since 2008. Today, Gasson posted 4:32.48 to smash that time and edge ever closer to the 4:30 mark.

It is her first ISL season and altogether she has posted new National Records in the 100m butterfly (57.58), 200m butterfly (2:07.44), and the 200IM (2:08.70). You can see a full breakdown of her splits here.

LA Current’s Andi Murez broke the 200m freestyle Israeli National Record in 1:53.58, causing major upset for London Roar and taking home 12 points for her team.

She out-touched Roar’s Freya Anderson (who came back in a sizzling 27.79) for first place, with Anderson posting 1:54.66.

The previous record mark was also owned by Murez and stood at 1:54.67 from the year 2017. She has also broken the 100m freestyle National Record twice during her 2020 ISL tenure.