Race video is courtesy of Universal Sports Network, a SwimSwam partner.
Women’s 200 IM – Doha World Cup – as reported by SwimSwim contributor Braden Keith.
Katinka Hosszu was back in the water for first day swim number 5, out of 6 scheduled, with a 2:05.45 in the 200 IM. She’s had a few ups-and-downs in different races in this series, but the IM’s have been steady – she hasn’t yet lost either one, including World Records on the European leg of both.
This swim isn’t as fast as she was in Europe, but is her best time so far of the 2nd cluster and faster than anybody else in the world has been this year.
Britain’s Sophie Allen put in a 2:06.36, which is her best time of the new season and jumps her from 5th to 4th in this year’s world rankings, while Jamaican Alia Atkinson was 3rd in 2:07.30. Allen, impressively, was only about three-tenths slower than Atkinson on the breaststroke leg, and Hosszu came within a second of her in that split in a wire-to-wire victory.
Evelyn Verraszto was 4th in 2:07.51, and Australian Emily Seebohm looked pretty beat-up at this meet, placing 5th at 2:08.32.
