Day 2 of the 2013 Singapore World Cup didn’t see any World Records (surprisingly, not even in the relay), but there was a lot of very good story lines regardless. Chad le Clos took three wins; Katinka Hosszu broke a National Record in the 100 back but was upset in the 200 fly; and Eugene Godsoe gave the Americans their first (and second) wins of the meet.
Men’s 1500 Freestyle
South Africa’s rising distance swimmer Myles Brown took his first win of the Singapore stop, topping the men’s 1500 free in 14:56.94. He and Hungary’s Gergely Gyurta (14:58.43) were locked nose-to-nose throughout the battle, but as both accelerated over the last 100 meters, Brown was able to accelerate just a bit more, and that was the difference at the touch.
Brazil’s Luiz Arapiraca took 3rd in 15:08.59.
Women’s 400 IM
Hungarian Katinka Hosszu kept her perfect run of wins in the women’s 400 IM alive in Singapore, taking Wednesday’s event in 4:27.60.
She did, however, get one of the better pushes that she’s seen this year, as Britain’s Hannah Miley took 2nd in 4:28.74, and Spain’s Mireia Belmonte placed 3rd in 4:28.90.
It is a rare occurrence, but those two were both better on the breaststroke leg than Hosszu (not so much of a surprise from Miley, as she’s a very good breaststroker outside of the IM’s). Hosszu, then, had to really go out strong on the butterfly and backstroke legs, and that’s just what she did: building over a five second lead.
Germany’s Theresa Michalak took 4th in 3:43.28.
Women’s 100 Free
Completing a sprint sweep, Australia’s Cate Campbell was a 51.67 to win the 100 free on the second day in Singapore. That moves her ahead of Emma McKeon as the second-fastest Australian in history, behind only the great Libby Trickett – who also happens to be the World Record holder (51.01).
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was 2nd in 52.14 (which would have been a World Record coming into this year’s short course season), and Emma McKeon took 3rd in 52.21.
British sprinter Fran Halsall took 4th in 52.72, and China’s Yi Tang was 5th in 53.67.
Men’s 200 Free
South Africa’s Chad le Clos continues his development both as a racer, and as a swimmer capable of a true lead-position in his country (aka, a big relay contributor) by winning the 200 free on Wednesday in 1:42.29.
That’s his first win of this year’s series in that 200 free, and a better time than we saw from anybody in the second cluster (the Moscow, Doha, and Dubai stops).
Le Clos was sitting on the shoulder of Thomas Fraser-Holmes (1:42.47) for most of this race, but the South African’s closing 50 split of 25.22 changed the gap by a full second to give him a narrow win.
The second Australian in this final, Bobby Hurley placed 3rd overall in 1:43.44, with Poland’s Pawel Korzeniowski taking 4th in 1:43.77.
Women’s 50 Breast
This World Record, belonging to Jessica Hardy at 28.80, seems to be on shaky footing, at best. For the second time in this year’s series, we’ve seen a swimmer come within two tenths of it, and this time it was Jamaican Alia Atkinson in a new lifetime best and National Record of 28.94.
That easily knocked off the 29.25 that she swam in Doha as the fastest ever done by a Jamaican.
Russia’s Yulia Efimova was very good in 29.25 for 2nd-place, which put her right around where she’s been for the last few meets. The difference was Atkinson’s improvements, rather than any sort of a drop-off from Efimova.
Germany’s Dorothea Brandt took 2nd in 30.39 ahead of teammate Theresa Michalak in 30.55.
Men’s 100 Breast
Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta is the clear class of the breaststroke field in Singapore, and he demonstrated that by winning in 57.31, but lest we forget: Russian Vlad Morozov does more than sprint freestyle. He’s also an outstanding breaststroker, arguably the best over 50 or 100 meters in Russia, and he wasn’t all that far behind for 2nd in 57.67.
Brazil’s Felipe Lima took 3rd in 58.29.
Men’s 100 Fly
Le Clos picked up his second win of the day, but again he was heavily challenged and had to come-from-behind to get that win.
He swam a 50.04 after being in 4th at the turn, and Poland’s Konrad Czerniak was the runner-up in 50.09: just .05 seconds behind.
The two fast starters were Australia’s Tommaso D’Orsogna (out in 23.6) and Brazil’s Nicholas Santos (out in 23.5). D’Orsogna wound up in 3rd-place overall in 50.86, and Dos Santos in 4th in 51.70: so the top four at the turn were completely reversed at the final finish.
Santos, who is a lightning-fast starter, has really been working on his 100 this fall according to local Brazilian media reports, though it seems like he still has a ways to go in that regard.
Women’s 100 Back
Katinka Hosszu did not fare so well in the 50m backstroke on Tuesday, but in Wednesday’s 100 she was on-fire. Out in just 28.1 (5th at the turn), she came home in 28.8 for a winning time of 57.04 – crushing four-tenths of a second off of her lifetime best and National Record from the Doha stop.
She beat a really impressive field, too, including Emily Seebohm (57.23), Lizzie Simmonds (57.58), Ukraine’s Daryna Zevina (57.61), and Australia’s Madison Wilson (57.78).
Seebohm, who hasn’t done a lot of short course racing, is looking much stronger as we roll into the third cluster of this series; she’s been at every meet thus far aside from Moscow.
Men’s 50 Backstroke
American Eugene Godsoe made his big splash over the summer as a butterflier, but in college, he was a great backstroker as well (an NCAA-title winning backstroker, in fact). And so in the 50 back, he became the first American winner at this stop of the series with a time of 23.12.
He beat out Australia’s Bobby Hurley (23.26) and Brazil’s Guilherme Guido (23.53) for the big check in that race.
Women’s 200 Fly
A new face arose on the medal podium in the 200 fly, as Germany’s 24-year old Franziska Hentke, little-known outside of her home country, had the biggest upset of the meet so far to win the 200 fly in 2:04.42.
This is the first time in the 2013 series, or in fact in the last two years on the tour, that Katinka Hosszu hasn’t won this race. This time, it was Hentke that came back in the last 50 meters for victory. Hosszu’s time was actually significantly faster than it was in her last three wins in this race, but Hentke still nipped her at the wall. Hosszu took 2nd in 2:04.69.
3rd-place went to Spain’s Mireai Belmonte in 2:06.97.
Men’s 200 IM
Chad Le Clos picked up his 3rd win of the day, topping the 200 IM in 1:53.36. He dominated every phase of the race but the breaststroke, where he still held-his-own, and once again beat Australia’s Thomas Fraser-Holmes in 1:54.60.
Brazil’s Henrique Rodrigues took 3rd in 1:55.08, and Australia’s Travis Mahoney was 4th in 1:55.94.
Women’s 400 Free
New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle added a win in the 400 free to her earlier one in the 800 free, posting a 4:00.78. She was fought by Spain’s Melania Costa-Schmid the whole race, but in the last 100, Boyle was completely unmatched.
Belmonte again was 3rd in 4:02.70, and Britain’s Miley took 4th in 4:03.38.
Men’s 50 Free
Russia’s Vlad Morozov took his 5th win in 6 meets so far in this 50 free, touching in 20.78. After trailing off a bit by the end of the Middle Eastern cluster, Morozov looks to be right back to where we’d expect him to be at this point of his season.
Trinidad’s George Bovell was 2nd in 21.20, and American Anthony Ervin took 3rd in 21.26.
The current World Record holder, and only man besides Morozov to win the race this year, Roland Schoeman was 4th in 21.36, followed by Santos (21.40), Czerniak (21.47), and D’Orsogna (21.59).
Women’s 200 Breast
Atkinson, winner of the two shorter breaststrokes, didn’t swim the 200, which left Russia’s Yulia Efimova to win in 2:18.33. She was not alone, however, as the 200 is the sweet-spot for Mio Motegi of Japan, coming in just behind in 2:18.63 after leading most of the race.
A trend developed on this second day, where especially among the elite swimmers, the man or woman who led going into the final 50 was not often the ultimate victor.
Britain’s Sophie Allen was well back for 3rd in 2:23.36, but she’ll feel good having topped country mate Miley, who was 4th in 2:25.21.
Women’s 100 IM
She fell in the women’s 200 fly, but Hosszu allowed no such thing in the 100 IM, though the win was not an easy one. The World Record holder touched 1st in the race with a 58.29, and Australia’s Alicia Coutts was 2nd in 58.32.
Alia Atkinson, who has won this race in this year’s circuit, took 3rd only another tenth back in 58.42.
Men’s 200 Back
Once again, in short course, Eugene Godsoe is just as good of a backstroker as he is a butterflier. He posted a 1:50.56 to win the 200 back in Singapore, which despite being the second-slowest win on this year’s series, is still worth another $1,500 none-the-less.
Australia’s Mitch Larkin took 2nd in 1:51.67, and Japan’s Yuki Shirai was 3rd in 1:51.74. Radoslaw Kawecki of Poland, who’s dominated the 200 back this year, didn’t swim at this meet.
Women’s 50 Fly
The Hungarian Hosszu scratched this 50 fly final after placing 6th in prelims, and it might not have mattered as Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was very good to take the win in 25.34.
Singapore’s Tao Li took 2nd in 25.57, and Australia’s Emma McKeon, who this fall seems to be transitioning into Australia’s ‘superstar’ class of swimmers, took 3rd in 25.81.
Mixed 200 Free Relay
Surprisingly, no World Record went down in this mixed 200 free relay, though the Brazilians were very close. Leading start-to-finish, Nicholas Oliveira, Fernando Silva, Larissa Oliveira, and Graciele Hermann combined for a 1:31.02, just .06 behind what the French went in Doha three weeks ago.
The Australians, meanwhile, had a ton of depth, but not quite enough male sprinters to get the record. They took 2nd, 3rd, and 6th in the race, with the best swim being a 23.98 anchor split from Emma McKeon on their 2nd-place relay.
Hosszu is a racer indeed. At 75-meter mark in the 100IM I believed that there is no way for her to overtake Coutts but she did it. The same thing was yesterday when Coutts seemed to win easily the 100-meter fly but over the last 25 meters Hosszu came and claimed the victory.
If Campbell swims the 100free fully tapered, I’d wager that she could take at least half a second off Trickett’s WR.
Good 1.42 for Chad le Clos in the 200 free.
Don’t forget his 47.97 split in the 4X100 free relay heats in Barcelona last summer!
The guy has a great freestyle.
Impressive 51.67 for Cate Campbell.
52.14 for Sarah Sjöström. What do you mean with “which would have been a world record coming into this year’s short course season”? The WR is 51.01.
Good backstroke triple for Eugene Godsoe.
A little disappointed by Anthony Ervin’s times in the 50 free since the start of the world cup season. He’s very good in the 100 free (new PB in 46.48 yesterday) but it doesn’t work as well in the shortest distance so far.