Michael Andrew Busts Out 2 Wins, C1 Scorches 100 Free Field To Wrap Up Doha

FINA WORLD CUP SERIES – DOHA

• Thursday, November 7th – Saturday, November 9th
• Hamad Aquatic Center, Doha, Qatar
• LCM
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

The 2019 FINA World Cup stop in Doha wrapped up tonight, which means the entire series has concluded for this season. We’ll wait for FINA’s official announcement of the winners, but Australian Cate Campbell most certainly came out on top of the overall women’s point standings race, capping off a successful campaign with another sprint victory this evening at Hamad Aquatic Center.

After reaping gold already in the 50m free, C1 fired off a winning effort of 52.61 in the women’s 100m free to earn a big-time 949 FINA points. She led a 1-2 Aussie finish with sister Bronte Campbell, who touched in 53.37, while Sweden’s Michelle Coleman rounded out the top 3 in 53.39.

Splitting 25.35/27.26, C1‘s time tonight was quicker than her 52.76 from Kazan. Her World Cup swiftest came in the form of her 52.34 World Cup Record set at the Jinan stop.

Chasing C1 the entire circuit in the women’s point standings was Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu, the most dominating woman in World Cup Series history. Wrapping up her 300th World Cup gold earlier this season, Hosszu powered her way to the 3rd fastest 100m fly time of her storied career tonight in Doha.

Hosszu’s splits of 27.85/30.34 brought the Hungarian to the wall tonight in 58.19 to top Jeanette Ottesen of Denmark in the 100m fly. Ottesen clocked 58.52, while Zsuzsanna Jakabos of Hungary rounded out the top 3 in 59.30.

For Hosszu, the multi-Olympic gold medalist owns a lifetime best of 57.80 from Barcelona this year, so her outing this evening was within a second of that to help her end the World Cup season on a high note.

As solid as her 100m fly was, however, Hosszu’s 200m IM wasn’t quick enough to make a dent on C1‘s World Cup standings’ lead. Hosszu mustered a time of 2:09.89, well off her season-best of 2:08.15.

Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys exerted his dominance once again in the men’s 200m free, wrangling up the gold this evening in 1:45.50. He owns the World Cup Record in a lifetime best of 1:44.38, a new national record, he established at the Singapore stop.

Also in the race was Aussie Alex Graham who took silver in 1:47.23, while Swiss dynamo Antonio Djakovic collected bronze in 1:48.71. Djakovic earned bronze in this event also at this year’s European Junior Championships, producing a time of 1:47.26 in Kazan.

Of note, Chad Le Clos of South Africa fell just .05 of Djakovic to finish off the men’s 200m free podium in 4th. He also missed out on a possible fly sweep, finishing 12th this morning in the heats of the 50m fly in 24.38 after claiming the 200m and 100m fly wins earlier in the meet.

American Michael Andrew ended his World Cup campaign in style, putting up 2 gold medal-worthy performances on the night. He first beat the men’s 50m fly field in a winning effort of 22.94, a time that checks-in as the 20-year-old’s 3rd best performance ever.

Andrew’s 22.94 represented the only sub-23 second time of the field, as Hungary’s Szebastian Sabo settled for silver in 23.34, while Finnish swimmer Riku Poytakivi placed 3rd in 23.60. Poytakivi’s time fell just .10 shy of the Finnish national record that’s been on the books since way back in 2002.

Andrew took this 50m fly even last week in Kazan as well, although he was 23.14 at that stop.

Andrew’s next victim was the 100m back, where the Race Pace Club athlete fired off a winning effort of 54.07 to top the podium. That comfortably held off the next 2 closest swimmers in Bradley Woodward of Australia and last night’s 200m IM winner Keita Sunama of Japan. The former touched in 54.66 ahead of the latter’s 54.95.

Last week in Kazan Andrew finished off the 1back podium in 4th place with a time of 54.42, so his outing this evening was an improvement and allowed the multi-national champion to end his campaign on a high note.

Although Russian Anton Chupkov took the gold in the men’s 200m breast, his 2:08.37 result tonight was less explosive than the reigning World Record holder has been in past stops across the circuit. That’s how high this man has set the bar. Chupkov was 2:07.71 last week, for instance.

However, Chupkov did what he needed to get ahead of Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands, the man who notched a new national record of 2:07.96 in Budapest. Tonight the Dutchman was 2:08.39, while Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki also got on the podium with the bronze in 2:08.66.

Aussie Emily Seebohm also snagged a gold medal, her first of the entire World Cup. In a confidence-boosting win over World Championships silver medalist Kaylee McKeown, veteran Seebohm got her hand on the wall in a time of 2:08.54 in the women’s 200m back.

Splitting 1:03.28/1:05.26, Seebohm’s time held off teenager McKeown by just .02, with the latter touching in 2:08.56. Seebohm’s effort tonight would have placed 7th in the final in Gwangju, where McKeown clocked 2:06.26 for runner-up.

Additional Winners:

• Hungary’s Balasz Hollo won the men’s 400m IM in a time of 4:15.17, narrowly edging out teammate David Verraszto and his runner-up time of 4:15.46.
• Slovenia got on the board courtesy of Tjasa Oder, as the national record holder clocked an 800m free mark of 8:34.65 for the victory tonight.
• Brazilian Jhennifer Coceicao got it done in the women’s 50m breast, earning gold in 30.43.