FOUR GOLD TO DOLPHINS ON DAY ONE IN MOSCOW
CANBERRA, November 9: Australian swimmers have collected four gold medals on the opening day of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup in Moscow overnight. IAN HANSON reports....
Series front-runners Christian Sprenger, Marieke Guehrer, Robert Hurley and Matt Jaukovic maintained their consistent form as they kept the Telstra Dolphins gold rush flowing.
Men's points leader Sprenger notched his fifth win from as many starts in the 200 metres breaststroke, clocking 2:05.75 (985 points) after chalking up victories in Belo Horizonte, Durban, Sydney and Singapore.
It was also his ninth tour victory on the rich World Cup circuit which will wind up after the mid-week sixth round in Stockholm and the final "double points" round in Berlin next weekend.
Women's Series leader Guehrer won her fourth 100m butterfly in 56.97 (971 points) reversing the result from Singapore last week when Singapore's Olympic finalist Li Tao upset Guehrer's winning streak.
Tao was no match for the dominant Guehrer in Moscow, finishing second in 58.50.
Hurley, the young Wollongong student who has emerged during the World Cup as a real contender for next year's FINA World Championships in Rome, won his fourth gold medal of the tour.
The AIS-based backstroke-freestyler won his second 100m backstroke in 50.51 (998pts) - just 0.23 seconds outside his own World Cup record set in Singapore last week and 0.52 secs outside Ryan Lochte's 2006 world record of 49.99.
Russia's Sydney round winner Stanislav Donets (50.88) took the silver with Hurley's backstroking team mate, Nunawading's AIS-based Olympian Ashley Delaney third in 51.52.
Hurley's points leaves him second after the first day in Moscow behind South African Cameron van der Burgh who smashed the world record when he beat Sprenger in the 50 metres breaststroke.
Van der Burgh clocked 26.08 (1056pts) to take 0.09secs off Oleg Lisogor's 2006 world mark of 26.17.
Sydney University's Jaukovic took his World Cup wins to four from five starts after he kept his unbeaten record in the 50 metres butterfly in tact.
Jaukovic clocked 23.12 to edge out Japan's Kohei Kawamoto (23.24) and 100m winner from Singapore, Russia's Evgeny Korotyshkin (23.30).
It was a special win for the Montenegro born Jaukovic who stepped on to the winners podium in front of his parents and brother, who he had not seen for 12 months.
Jaukovic, who became a naturalised Australian in January this year after representing Montenegro as a junior, set a world record of 22.50 in the 50 metres butterfly in Sydney late last month.
Other Australian medallists on day one, which saw the Dolphins finish with four gold, four silver and two bronze medals, were:
- Guehrer, silver, behind arch rival Therese Alshammar in the 50 metres freestyle 24.60 to 24.72 with fellow Australians Alice Mills fifth and Sally Foster sixth in 25.10 and 25.21 respectively.
- Sarah Katsoulis (1:05.55), silver and Foster (1:07.43) bronze to Russian Valentina Artemyeva (1:04.71) in the women's 100mn breaststroke. Katsoulis (972 points) is sitting in second on day one points.
- Queensland's Chris Wright, silver in the men's 200m butterfly in 1:53.67 - the only non Russian in the field in an event won by the experienced Nikolay Skvortsov.