GUEHRER AND SPRENGER TOP POINTSCORERS IN OPENING FINA/ARENA WORLD CUP

BELO HORIZONTE, October 13: Australian swimmers Marieke Guehrer and Christian Sprenger have scooped the pool after the opening FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup in Belo Horizonte, Brazil overnight.

The pair won the prestigious High Pointscorers Awards with stunning performances on day two of the meet.

Guehrer added to her day one gold in the 100 metres butterfly with eye-catching wins in both the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle - her butterfly time the seventh fastest all-time and just 0.27 outside the world record set earlier this year by fellow Australian Felicity Galvez.

The Athens Olympic backstroker clocked 25.63 to score 991 points - lowering the colours of nine-time world short course champion Therese Alshammar in the best swim of the meet.

She also caught the eye in the blue ribband 100m freestyle final, clocking the fifth fastest time by an Australian of 53.27 to defeat another Swede in Josefin Lillhage, who ironically had a stint some years ago under Guehrer's Melbourne Vicentre coach Ian Pope.

Guehrer finished the weekend with three gold medals and a silver from four swims.

While the Melbourne-based former Queenslander was the star of the women's events, Queensland's Beijing Olympian Christian Sprenger was the stand out in the men's, wrapping up the breaststroke treble.

He added the 100m gold medal to his day one wins in the 50 and 200m, equalling his personal best time of 58.19, set in Canberra prior to the Olympics and scoring 981 points to top the men's FINA pointscore.

Sprenger's time was 0.72 secs outside Ed Moses' long standing world record set at the Stockholm World Cup in 2002.

The five-strong team of Telstra Dolphins all shared in the medals with Kyle Richardson, Sophie Edington and new-comer Jackie Staples all on the podium.

Richardson finished with a bronze medal to Olympic 1500m freestyle champion Oussama Mellouli in the 200m freestyle final, clocking a time of 1:46.68.

Edington added silver in the 100m backstroke to her silver in the 50m on day one, again beaten by Brazil's Fabiola Molina while Staples finished with bronze in the 200 metres butterfly in 2:10.99.

Mellouli, who will be one of the biggest international stars arriving in Sydney next week for the third leg of the FINA/ARENA World Cup (October 25,26) added the 1500m freestyle gold medal in a busy morning.

Meanwhile on day one of the meet, Sprenger and Guerher had opened up Australia's campaign with a triple gold medal haul.

Sprenger opened his account with a personal best time of 26.89 in the 50m breaststroke final, just a touch outside Beijing team mate Brenton Rickard's Australian Short Course record of 26.62.

He was back in the water later in the day to easily account for the field in the 200m breaststroke, recording a comfortable time of 2 mins 07.58.

Guehrer showed why her comeback was very much on track with wins in butterfly and freestyle - winning the 100m butterfly in 57.51, outside her best but too good for Brooke Bishop (USA) 59.13 and Mandy Loots (RSA) 59.18.

She later finished second to Bishop in the 50 metres freestyle, clocking 24.73 to Bishop's 24.66 and ahead of nine-time FINA World Short Course Champion and 2002 FINA World Champion in this event, Therese Alshammar (Sweden) 24.96.

Richardson won two bronze medals, behind Brazil's Olympic 50m freestyle champion, Cesar Cielo and Olympic finalist Stefan Nystrand (Sweden) in the 100m freestyle, clocking 48.24 and behind Brazilian pair Thiago Pereira and Henrique Rodrigues in the 100m individual medley in 54.66.

Edington was Australia's only other medallist, winning silver to Brazil's Fabiola Molina in the 50 metres backstroke, 27.60, to 27.79.

The FINA/ARENA World Cup comes to the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on October 25 and 26 and will feature a host of Australian stars, including Beijing Olympic golden girls Bronte Barratt and Emily Seebohm and Tunisia's 1500m freestyle Olympic gold medallist Oussama Mellouli. - IAN HANSON.