Le Clos back into World Cup series points lead after Dubai, but only by 4; Hosszu crushing competition

Chad le Clos is back in the driver’s seat, leading the World Cup points standings after the Dubai meet, but his lead is just four points after a great weekend for Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta.

Gyurta’s teammate Katinka Hosszu, on the other hand, hasn’t lost control of the wheel yet, and doesn’t appear to be relaxing her grip anytime soon. Hosszu outscored all swimmers by 100 at the Dubai stop and now leads by 229 over the Netherlands’ Inge Dekker.

The first two meets of the World Cup make up the first “cluster,” with bonus cash for the top 6 finishers in the cluster.

For the men, that includes Le Clos and Gyurta, plus third-place Thomas Fraser-Holmes of Australia. A ways back of him is American Tom Shields, plus Germany’s Marco Koch and Christian Diener.

On the women’s side, Alia Atkinson of Jamaica runs third, with Mireia Belmonte just three points back. Also in line for cluster bonuses are Marieke D’Cruz and Breeja Larson.

The World Cup series awards points in three ways. All medalists (top 3) in any individual event earn points, 12 for gold, 9 for silver and 6 for bronze. World records add a bonus of 20 points. Finally, the top 3 overall performances in FINA points earn “performance bonuses” in each gender. First gains 24, second 18 and third 12.

Of course, an athlete can only earn one performance bonus, so an athlete with the two highest-scoring performances can’t sweep the 24 and 18 point bonuses. That’s good for most of the women at this meet, as Hosszu didn’t just sweep the top two performances, she swept the top 8. She still earns the 24-point bonus, but Dekker and Atkinson are able to move up for the other two.

We had a rare tie for the third-best performance on the women’s side. Atkinson’s 50 breast and Belmonte’s 800 free both earned 967 FINA Points. World Cup rules state that the tie is broken by each athlete’s second-best performance, and that’s how Atkinson picked up the bonus. Her second best event was the 100 IM where she put up 958 FINA Points, while Belmonte’s next-best was just 925 from the 400 IM.

Here are the overall performance bonus winners from the Dubai World Cup:

Performance Bonuses:

Men:

1. Daniel Gyurta, 200 breast: 1004 FINA Points
2. Chad le Clos, 100 fly: 993 FINA Points
3. Marco Koch, 200 breast: 984 FINA Points

Women:

1. Katinka Hosszu, 100 IM: 1031 FINA Points
2. Inge Dekker, 50 Fly: 971 FINA Points
3. Alia Atkinson, 50 Breast: 967 FINA Points

Men’s Point Standings

Women’s Point Standings