Shields, Hosszu earn most World Cup points on day 1 in Hong Kong, leaders stay the same

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu and American Tom Shields were the biggest winners on day 1 of the Hong Kong World Cup, at least in terms of series points.

Hosszu has all but wrapped the circuit up and we’re not even halfway through. She added 69 more points to her total and now leads by 274 over the Netherlands’ Inge Dekker. That was courtesy of 5 wins on a day where Hosszu was originally entered in every single event. She wound up scratching out of the 100 breast, but won 5 of her 7 races, taking 2nd in the 50 free and 4th in the 100 fly.

Shields, meanwhile, had himself a big day, boosting his point total by 42 to jump into third place in the standings. Shields was 4th after the opening cluster. He picked up two wins and also added two runner-up finishes on day 1 to outscore all opponents by 18 or more.

Series points leader Chad le Clos won both the races he entered, and still leads the field handily. Second-place Daniel Gyurta went without a win and is 13 back. But Shields, Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Marco Koch all won two events each, so the latter two kept pace with Le Clos while Shields gained some ground. That crew makes up the current top 5.

Keep in mind that though the biggest prizes come for the overall series lead, the circuit also gives out monetary bonuses for the individual winners of each “cluster.” Hong Kong begins the second cluster, including this meet and the Moscow World Cup later this week. That means that Shields and Hosszu are the current cluster leaders, and the frontrunners (at the moment at least) for the $50,000 bonuses given out at the end of the cluster.

Men’s Point Standings

Women’s Point Standings