ALSHAMMAR'S WORLD RECORD BREAKING START TO FINA/ARENA WORLD CUP
October 20: Sweden's Therese Alshammar dominated the first meet of the $US400,000 FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup 2009, held in Durban (RSA) on October 16-17, setting two of the four new world records established in the South African round.
Alshammar clocked 58.51 in the women's 100m individual medley heats, bettering the time of 58.54 set by Australia's Emily Seebohm at the Telstra Australian Short Course Championships in Hobart in August.In the last race of the second day, the Swedish champion (who decided not to swim the 100m IM final) smashed the world record in the 50m butterfly, clocking 24.75 and bettering the time of 24.99, established by Marieke Guehrer (AUS) in November 2008 in Berlin.
American Jessica Hardy, banned from the Beijing Olympics after testing positive to clenbuterol, improved her own mark in the 50m breaststroke, touching the wall in 29.45 (she had established the previous WR in Manchester, in April 2008, with the time of 29.58).
Her compatriot Peter Marshall swam the men's 50m backstroke in 22.75, improving the previous mark of 22.87 set by US compatriot Randall Bal in November 2008 in Berlin.
Besides the world records, there were seven new World Cup records in Durban, including Peter Marshall in the 100m backstroke (49.40); George Du Rand (RSA) in the 200m backstroke (1:49.53) and Roland Schoeman (RSA) in the 50m breaststroke (25.90) and 50m butterfly (22.32).
Marshall leads the chase for the lucrative overall men's pointscore of $US180,000 ($US100,000; $US50,000 and $US30,000 for the first three placegetters). After round one Marshall has 40 points from Schoeman (25pts) and RSA's Cameron van der Burgh (16).
In the women's field, World Cup records were set by Jessica Hardy in the 100m breaststroke (1:04.15); Therese Alshammar in the 100m butterfly (56.12), and by Hinkelien Schreuder (NED) in the 50m backstroke (26.55).
Alshammar leads the women's World Cup pointscore on 65 points from Hardy (40) and last year's winner Guehrer (16) as they also chase a share of the $180,000 on offer for the top three placegetters at the end of the women's Series.
Swimmers from South Africa dominated the competition, with a total of 13 gold medals (out of 34 at stake) - 10 in the men's events and three in the women.
Calendar of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup 2009:
- October 16-17 in Durban (RSA)
NEXT MEET: November 6-7 in Moscow (RUS)
- November 10-11 in Stockholm (SWE)
- November 14-15 in Berlin (GER)
- November 21-22 in Singapore (SIN)
1st Meet - October 16-17, 2009 in Durban (RSA)
WINNERS
|
|
WOMEN (W) |
MEN (M) |
|
50m free |
Therese Alshammar (SWE) 23.74 |
Stefan Nystrand (SWE) 21.29 |
|
100m free |
Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED) 52.46 |
Sergey Fesikov (RUS) 46.30 |
|
200m free |
Felicity Galvez (AUS) 1:57.60 |
Darian Townsend (RSA) 1:42.79 |
|
400m free |
Jessica Pengelly (RSA) 4:11.62 |
Dominik Meichtry (SUI) 3:42.09 |
|
800m free (W) |
Kathryn Meaklim (RSA) 8:29.51 |
- |
|
1500m free (M) |
- |
Heerden Herman (RSA) 14:49.17 |
|
50m backstr. |
Hinkelien Schreuder (NED) 26.55** |
Peter Marshall (USA) 22.75* |
|
100m backstr. |
Fabiola Molina (BRA) 57.77 |
Peter Marshall (USA) 49.40** |
|
200m backstr. |
Whitney Myers (USA) 2:07.26 |
George Du Rand (RSA) 1:49.53** |
|
50m breaststr. |
Jessica Hardy (USA) 29.45* |
Roland Schoeman (RSA) 25.90** |
|
100m breaststr. |
Jessica Hardy (USA) 1:04.15** |
Cameron vd Burgh (RSA) 56.60 |
|
200m breaststr. |
Nadja Higl (SRB) 2:20.41 |
Neil Versfeld (RSA) 2:03.35 |
|
50m butterfly |
Therese Alshammar (SWE) 24.75* |
Roland Schoeman (RSA) 22.32** |
|
100m butterfly |
Therese Alshammar (SWE) 56.12** |
Evgeny Korotyshkin (RUS) 50.23 |
|
200m butterfly |
Felicity Galvez (AUS) 2:05.55 |
Chad Le Clos (RSA) 1:54.45 |
|
100m medley |
Jessica Hardy (USA) 59.93 |
Sergey Fesikov (RUS) 51.96 |
|
200m medley |
Whitney Myers (USA) 2:09.10 |
Darian Townsend (RSA) 1:53.13 |
|
400m medley |
Kathryn Meaklim (RSA) 4:30.53 |
Chad Le Clos (RSA) 4:05.04 |
* World Record
Provisional leaders of the World Cup after the 1st meet:
|
MEN |
||
|
Swimmer |
Country |
Points |
|
1. Peter Marshall |
USA |
40 |
|
2. Roland Schoeman |
RSA |
25 |
|
3. Cameron van der Burgh |
RSA |
16 |
|
WOMEN |
||
|
Swimmer |
Country |
Points |
|
1. Therese Alshammar |
SWE |
65 |
|
2. Jessica Hardy |
USA |
40 |
|
3. Marieke Guehrer |
AUS |
16 |