2019 FINA WORLD CUP #2 – JINAN, CHINA
- Thursday, August 8th – Sunday, August 10th
- Natatorium of the Jinan Olympic Sport Centre, Jingshi Donglu, Lixia District, Jinan, China
- LCM
- Heats at 9am local (9pm night before EDT)/Finals at 8pm local (8am EDT)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Entries
- Results
Today marked the final day of competition in Jinan, China, the 2nd stop of the 1st cluster of the 2019 FINA World Cup Series. From here, swimmers venture on to Singapore to close out the first leg of the circuit, with competition at the OCBC Aquatic Centre kicking off on August 15th.
Getting the party started in Jinan tonight was Aussie Thomas Fraser-Holmes, the 27-year-old Olympian who is battling his way back to form after having been suspended for missing 3 anti-doping tests over 12 months.
On his road to redemption, TFH earned bronze in the 400m IM at the 2018 Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou and followed that up with a World Championships qualifying time of 4:14.68 at his nation’s World Trials. In Gwangju, TFH clocked a time of 4:16.93 in the 4IM heats, placing 12th and out of the finals.
Yesterday, TFH took 200m IM bronze, but he upgraded that to gold in a time of 4:20.50 in this longer IM this evening. Although somewhat pedestrian by his standards, the time still gave TFH the edge by over 14 seconds, with American Brennan Gravley hitting the wall in 4:34.99 for silver. Taiwan’s Chu Ken-Chai took bronze in 4:38.75 in this 4IM tonight.
As a point of reference between the previous stop and here, TFH’s time in Tokyo of 4:20.80 rendered the Aussie 9th.
The women’s 800m free saw 18-year-old Erica Sullivan of the United States surge to the wall first, clocking a winning effort of 8:26.13. That enabled Sullivan to claim the gold narrowly ahead of China’s charging Hou Yawen, yesterday’s 200m free victor, who touched in 8:26.79 for silver tonight.
Aussie Maddy Gough rounded out the women’s 800m free with bronze in 8:29.94.
For Sullivan, she holds a personal-best mark of 8:25.51 from last year, a time which keeps her as the 10th fastest American 17-18 female performer of all-time in this 800m free event.
The American was back in the pool a handful of events later to contest the women’s 200m back, with Sullivan stepping onto the podium again. In this race, she clinched bronze in a time of 2:16.36, just .03 shy of Jiang Yuru of China, who secured silver in 2:16.33.
Sullivan’s time marks the 4th fastest of her career, with the Sandpiper holding a personal best of 2:12.94 from the aforementioned SMOC.
Winning the 2back was Aussie Emily Seebohm, the 2015 World Champion in this event who missed out on this year’s World Championships due to finishing behind teenagers Minna Atherton and Kaylee McKeown at the World Trials.
Seebohm clocked a time of 2:09.56 to beat the field easily, about a half-second off of her winning effort from last week, which was 2:09.03.
The Chinese crowd helped roar swimmer Zhang Yufei to the wall first in the women’s 100m fly event, with the 21-year-old leading the field wire-to-wire to claim gold in 57.41. Splitting 26.66/30.75, Zhang produced the only sub-58 second time of the night, with her 57.41 results crushing the 57.93 she put up in Gwangju to finish 13th out of the semi-finals in this event.
Danish Olympian Jeanette Ottesen landed the silver tonight in 58.34, her fastest time in 3 years. She was 58.65 just last week in Tokyo for 4th place.
Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Jakabos collected bronze in 58.39, the fastest outing of her career. Her previous PB rested at the 58.75 she produced in 2015 during that year’s World Cup.
Fellow Hungarian Sebastian Sabo cranked out a winning time of 22.93 in the men’s 50m fly, clocking the only sub-23 second time of the field. The 23-year-old former Serbian swimmer hit the wall in a time that falls just .03 outside of the 22.90 he logged in Gwangju for 5th at this year’s World Championships and checks-in as his 2nd fastest mark ever in the event.
Runner-up came in the form of America’s Michael Andrew, who busted out a time fo 23.13 to reap silver. Andrew was 23.24 last week for bronze, so the multi-U.S. national champion upgraded one spot closer to gold this time around and in a time faster by .11.
Belarusian Yauhen Tsurkin collected bronze in a time of 23.66. He owns his nation’s standard at 22.90 from the 2013 World Championships. Of note, Tsurkin is married to multi-Olympic medalist Aliaksandra Herasimenia who just announced her retirement from competitive swimming.
Mitch Larkin of Australia already threw down an impressive 1:57.26 200m IM for gold last night and followed up with another impressive outing in the 100m back this evening. Splitting 26.10/27.69, the 26-year-old St. Peters Western star got to the wall in a time fo 53.79. That time sits about a second outside the 52.77 he produced in Gwangju to claim bronze behind winner Xu Jiayu of China and Evgeny Rylov of Russia.
Larkin’s teammate from down under, Tristan Hollard, nailed a time of 54.39 to represent the Southport man’s 3rd fastest time of his career. Hollard’s PB sits at the 53.98 he put up at the 2018 Pan Pac Trials.
Andrew wrangled up bronze in this 1back event in a time of 54.44, much better than his 56.49 8th place finish from Tokyo.
Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson was 30.88 in the heats of the women’s 50m breaststroke and was just slightly off that morning swim with a 30.92 outing tonight. The 30-year-old veteran’s time still remained as the only sub-31 outing of the field, with Suo Ran of China finishing in 2nd place with a result of 31.24. Ran’s teammate Yu Jingyao rounded out the top 3 in 31.61.
Atkinson finished with a time of 30.34 in this quick event at the 2019 World Championships, ultimately placing 4th.
In the men’s 200m breaststroke, American Andrew Wilson produced another impressive swim, stopping the clock at 2:08.24 to win by over 2 seconds. Wilson placed 6th in this event in Gwangju, registering a time there in Korea of 2:08.10, so tonight’s result was only .14 away from that mighty performance.
The Athens Bulldogs racer holds a lifetime best of 2:07.77 earned just last week in Tokyo, a swim which rendered the 25-year-old as the 4th fastest American performer ever in the event.
Towards the end of the session, Aussie Cate Campbell rocked a World Cup Record of 52.34 to dominate the women’s 100m free and collect another gold here in Jinan. The 27-year-old took both the 50m free and 50m fly here at this 2nd stop but put the cherry on top with a super 52.34 swim this evening to overtake the previous WC Record of 52.64 she produced just last week.
Her time tonight beats the 52.43 she logged for silver behind World Championships title winner Simone Manuel of the United States (52.04).
Splits for C1 tonight included 25.29/27.05 while at Worlds the Aussie registered 25.29/27.14.
Sweden’s Michelle Coleman established the 4th fastest time of her career in a mark of 53.73 for silver, while C1’s teammate Holly Barratt added bronze to her 50m fly silver in a time of 54.78. That’s a big-time personal best for Barratt, representing the 31-year-old’s first time ever under 55 in the event.
Danas Rapsys of Lithuania kept the World Cup Records going, clocking a new standard in the men’s 200m free. Hitting the wall in 1:45.07, Rapsys smoked the field tonight, one which included China’s freestyle ace Ji Xinjie and America’s Blake Pieroni. Ji touched in 1:46.68, while Pieroni took bronze in 1:47.90.
Splitting 51.61/53.46, Rapsys’ time overtook the previous WC Record time of 1:45.74 he punched last week in Tokyo. Rapsys touched first in the men’s 200m free at this year’s World Championships but was deemed disqualified due to a flinch on the blocks.
Rapsys’ Lithuanian National Record sat at the 1:45.12 from 2018’s Swim Open Stockholm, so his performance tonight is a new standard.
Katinka Hosszu topped off the session with 200m IM gold, putting up a time of 2:09.41 to win by 4 seconds. She was 2:08.63 last week.
China finished the night with a new World Cup Record in the mixed medley relay, with the squad of Xu Jiayu (53.43), Yan Zibei (58.31), Zhang Yufei (58.28) and Zhu Menghui (53.77), collectively clocking a time of 3:43.79. That surpasses the former WC Record notched just last week by Japan, who were 3:44.75.
Nice article, thanks Retta. The header seems to imply that the Cate Campbell story would be prominently figured at the top, but had to search almost all the way down. Possibly change one or the other? TYVM
Yeah all that extra reading might’ve killed you!
My answer to your question is that as written, Rapsys’s 200 free Lithuanian national record of 1:45.12 will last 0 days longer.
Of course!
Cafe Campbell can’t perform to her best individually at worlds or Olympics.. must put too much pressure on herself
Female Morozov.
Yep
I don’t know, Campbell did alright this time through with a silver and a 52.43 at worlds. Sure if wasn’t a best time, but it was far from the colossal collapse at the Olympics.
Ya, I’ll give Cait credit where it’s due, at least she still finals and gets a medal. But she always comes in as the gold favourite and never gets it done (mainly in the 100). Plus, the top 3-4 women in her events are even another notch above the other half in the finals… there is less of a drop off from the top men and that second tier. Cait/Sjoestrom/Blume/Manuel were essentially win trading, the last how many years, in the sprint freestyles? While Dressel and Chalmers have separated themselves a little bit from the rest, the top ten men are separated by much less than the top ten women.
Olympic champ – world champ – world champ. All three big titles over the past four years belong to Simon. Not really trying around that good medal. Simon just gets it done in finals at the big meet consistently.
I think Cate is playing it a lot smarter this year by racing so much more than normal. Hopefully it will pay off next year.
Pressure (intimidation) busts pipes
this isn’t historically uncommon for Australian women…