Groves and Seebohm mix it with Hosszu in World Cup medal chase

 

  

Swimming Australia, August 31, 2016: Rio Olympic silver medallists Maddie Groves and Emily Seebohm have produced outstanding performances from a small but competitive Australian contingent on the opening day of the FINA Short Course World Cup Meet in Berlin.

Groves has continued her run of silvers – chalking up three impressive second places in the, 200m freestyle 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle.

The brave St Peters Western swimmer, who fell agonisingly short of gold in the 200m butterfly in Rio, had to contend with Hungary’s triple Olympic gold medallist and World Cup star Katinka Hosszu -as did Seebohm.

Groves employed the same “catch me if you can” tactics in the 200m freestyle as she did in Rio’s butterfly final and after leading through the first 50 metres it was Hosszu who came over the top of the young Australian with Hosszu touching in 1:52.08, narrowly ahead of Groves (1:52.52).

Australia’s Leah Neale, a member of the Rio bronze medal-winning 4x200m freestyle relay in Rio, picked was fourth and later picked up the bronze medal in the 800m freestyle  in a time of 8:27.39.

And while Groves was able to turn the tables on Hosszu in the 100m butterfly it was Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen who won the gold from Groves with Hosszu third.

Ottesen led from start to finish, winning in 55.86 from Groves 55.97, with Paris winner Hosszu, picking up the bronze in 56.75.

Ottesen picked up her second win in the 50 metres freestyle with an impressive  sub-24 secs time of 23.58, with Groves again taking silver in 24.32, followed closely by the USA’s Katie Meili (24.35).

Australia’s Holly Barratt finished fourth overall with a 24.63.

Meanwhile dual world backstroke champion and 4x100m medley relay silver medallist in Rio, Emily Seebohm was Australia’s only gold medallist, taking out the 50m backstroke final, lowering the colours of the ever-present Hosszu.

Seebohm proved too quick for Hosszu in the frantic 50m final touching in 26.3 to Hosszu’s 26.45 for the silver with Daryna Zevina of Ukraine (26.81) third, just ahead of Australia’s Holly Barratt’s 26.86.

The 200m backstroke saw Hosszu on top again, stopping the clock at 2:00.52, just outside her World Record of 1:59.23, set in 2014 in Doha.

Zevina, finished a close second with a 2:00.75.ahead of Seebohm (2:01.58) and Russia’s Daria Ustinova (2:03.75).

In other events: Australian pair Bobby Hurley and Mitch Larkin finished 2-3 with times of 50.34 and 50.51 respectively in the 100m backstroke while Hurley also grabbed second overall with a 3:43.02, in the 400m freestyle behind Great Britain’s  James Guy who clocked a sizzling 3:39.20 to take the gold.