2015 FINA World Cup Dubai: Day 2 Finals Live Recap

2015 FINA WORLD CUP: DUBAI

• Friday, November 6th and Saturday, November 7th
• Prelims – 10 am local (1 am EST)  Finals – 6 pm local (9 am EST)
• Hamdan Sports Complex
• Full Schedule/Meet Information
• Start Lists/Live Results
• FINA Live Stream
• Point Standings After Doha
• Day 1 Finals Recap

WOMEN’S 100 FREE – FINAL

Australia nabs the first gold medal of the night, with Melanie Wright throwing down the 3rd-fastest time in the world in the women’s 100m freestyle.  Her time of 53.79 was just enough to hold off the charging Hungarian, Katinka Hosszu, who clocked an amazing time herself, 53.64, just .13 of a second off of the Hungarian record.  Despite being the top seed out of prelims, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini finished in the bronze position with her time of 55.15, just a touch faster than her prelims mark of 55.23.

MEN’S 200 FREE – FINAL

Wow, this super close men’s 200 free made the first two races of the night decided by just .18 of a second total, as Great Britain’s James Guy got the job done in a speedy 1:46.60. That time beats his Doha outing and now ranks as the 2nd-fastest time of the season, sitting only behind China’s Sun Yang (1:45.79). Serbia’s Velimir Stjepanovic rocked a time of 1:46.63, his best of this year and less than a second off of his own career best of 1:45.78. Bronze went to France’s Jeremy Stravius, yesterday’s 100m free winner, who logged a time in the longer race today of 1:47.28. Teammate Yannick Agnel finished 3rd in 1:47.28.

WOMEN’S 50 BREAST – FINAL

Yesterday’s on-fire 100m breaststroker, Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson, fired off another swift swim tonight, registering a time of 30.26 to take the sprint event.  America’s Molly Hannis wrangled in the silver in a time of 30.54, with Aussie Leiston Pickett touching in 30.79 for bronze. Atkinson blasted away the previous top time of the season with her mark tonight and was just over a tenth shy of her Jamaican National Record of 30.17.

MEN’S 100 BREAST – FINAL

In one of the premier battles of the day, South Africa’s Cameron Van der Burgh scored a big win over rival British swimmer and current 100m breaststroke world record holder, Adam Peaty. Van der Burgh took it out about even with Peaty with splits of 27.58 and 27.60 as their respective splits, but VDB had a tad more power coming home, beating the Brit 31.47 to 31.68 on the back half.  Final times for each were 59.05 for VDB and 59.05 for Peaty. Fellow British star, Ross Murdoch, cleaned up the bronze spot with his mark of 1:00.62, while American Kevin Cordes fell just shy of a medal finishing in 1:00.63.

For VDB, this completes his sweep of the 50m breaststroke AND 100m breaststroke events of the entire 2015 World Cup Series. Quite a feat, especially with the world record holder Peaty in the field tonight.

MEN’S 100 FLY – FINAL

Terrific swim from South Africa’s butterfly stud Chad Le Clos, as he clocked the season’s best time of 51.09, wiping his 51.24 from Brazzaville Africa Games off the map. American Tom Shields  also dipped beneath the 52-second threshold with a time of 51.90 for silver.  In a somewhat surprise finish for bronze, Singapore’s star swimmer, Zheng Wen Quah, battled for bronze and beat out American Giles Smith.  Quah’s time of 52.25 got the Singaporean on the podium tonight, while Smith faded to 4th in 52.69.

WOMEN’S 100 BACK – FINAL

Leave it up to Emily Seebohm to scoop up another 100m backstroke win, an event in which the Australian has been so utterly dominant this World Cup Series.  58.51 was Seebohm’s time tonight, giving the speedster her 10th gold medal in the event and officially marking Seebohm’s sweep of the event over all World Cup stops.  Hungarian do-it-all swimmer, Hosszu, also dipped beneath the minute threshold, winning silver in 59.15. GBR picked up another piece of hardware with Harriet Cooper‘s bronze medal-winning time of 1:00.95.

MEN’S 50 BACK – FINAL

30-year-old American David Plummer cranked out a winning time of 24.64 to take gold in the men’s 50 backstroke at the Hamdan Sports Complex, holding off a beastly Mitch Larkin who wound up touching just .04 later in 24.68. Japan’s Masaki Kaneko rounded out the top 3 in a mark of 25.36. This is Plummer’s 3rd win in this event across the World Cup and his time of 24.58 from earlier in the series still holds as the top time in the world.

WOMEN’S 200 FLY – FINAL

Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Jakabos led the field with her gold medal-winning time of 2:07.77 to give her a 4th World Cup win in 2015.  Jakabos already topped the podium in Beijing, Singapore and Doha, but her best time of 2015 came at the Chartres stop where she earned a time of 2:07.11.  Swiss National Record Holder Martina Eva Van Berkel settled for silver with her time of 2:09.50, while France’s Lara Grangeon scored the bronze in her time of 2:10.46.  Young American Cassidy Bayer just missed the podium with her time of 2:10.83.

MEN’S 200 IM – FINAL

Japan gets itself up on the board with a gold medal, as Keita Sunama earned the win in the men’s 200 IM event in a time of 2:00.72, a result which sits just outside of the world’s top 5 so far this 2015-16 season:

I did a double-take on the country for silver, as Raphael Stacchiotti from Luxembourg stepped onto the podium with is 2nd place time of 2:01.09. He is the first medalist from his nation to win a medal at the World Cup. Stacchiotti is actually his nation’s record holder in this event, holding Luxembourg’s best mark at 2:00.22 from 2012.  Bronze tonight went to former Arizona Wildcat/South Africa’s Michael Meyer in 2:02.39.

WOMEN’S 400 FREE – FINAL

Hosszu led through about the 250m mark, but then New Zealand’s distance ace, Lauren Boyle, switched gears and soared ahead.  Boyle would end up winning in a monstrous time of 4:04.26, not too far off her national record of 4:03.63 and well ahead of her Doha time of 4:06.58.  In fact, Boyle now sits as the top 400m freestyler in the world by over two seconds, as Hosszu would end up touching in 4:06.97, an impressive time for the #IronLady. GBR’s Jazz Carlin also got on the podium in 4:07.27 for bronze.

MEN’S 50 FREE – FINAL

Brazil tops the podium tonight in the splash n’ dash, with Bruno Fratus leading the frenzied swimmers in a time of 22.05.  Fratus on the event in Doha in a time of 22.28, the Brazilian beast dropped some in just the last few days. Le Clos made his mark in the sprint, snagging the silver in a time of 22.22, quite speedy for the man mostly known for butterfly and longer freestyle in the 100-200 range.  Fratus’ mark surpasses that of Japan’s Nakamura who had held the top time in the world; Le Clos now sits as 3rd-fastest in the world rankings. USA’s Anthony Ervin clocked 22.40 for a solid bronze tonight and also sits within the world’s top 5.

WOMEN’S 200 BREAST – FINAL

Turkey’s Viktoria Gunes hasn’t been much of a factor in Dubai…until now.  The young World Junior Championships female swimmer of the meet earned the gold in the 200m breast in a time of 2:22.87 to slide in behind Japan’s Kanako Watanabe who sits atop the world rankings throne in 2:22.41. But, Watanabe’s countrymates did score 2 medals on tonight’s race in her absence, as Runa Imai and Rie Kaneto finished for a close silver and bronze.  Imai finished in 2:23.43, while Kaneto touched in 2:23.51.

MEN’S 200 BACK – FINAL

Australia’s Mitch Larkin has done it again, ladies and gentlemen, lowering his own Australian, Commonwealth and Oceanic 200m backstroke records by another two tenths.  1:53.17 was Larkin’s stellar mark tonight, lighting his previous 1:53.34 mark from Tokyo up in flames.  Larkin’s 1:53.17 ranks as the 6th-fastest performance of all time, and 2nd-fastest textile time. As with his 1:53.34, his time tonight beats what won gold in London, Tyler Clary’s 1:53.41. Roughly 5 entire seconds later, Japan’s Masaki Kaneko finished in 1:58.06 for silver, with GBR’s rising backstroke star Luke Greenbank in 3rd with his time of 1:58.68.

WOMEN’S 50 FLY – FINAL

The stars n’ stripes got to stand atop the podium again tonight, this time with Felicia Lee‘s win in the 50m butterfly. Lee one-upped her silver medal result from Doha by finishing in 26.69, scoring her 3rd-fastest outing of all-time. Doha’s gold medalist, Swiss swimmer Alexandra Sasha Touretski, wound up with silver this time around in a time of 26.80, while Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson finished with the bronze in 26.95.

MEN’S 1500 FREE – FINAL

What an exciting men’s 1500m free race we were treated to tonight, as Czech swimmer Jan Micka and Ukrainian Mykhailo Romanchuk were never more than half a second away from one another over the entire grueling distance. They alternated who led the other through the 1450m mark, and that’s when Micka gunned a final split of 26.20 to Romanchuk’s 26.91 to take the gold at the end.  Micka’s final time was 15:02.08, while Romanchuk’s was 15:02.34.  For Micka, that registers a new National Record, beating his previous time of 15:03.68 from earlier this year. Bronze tonight went to the Faroe Islands’ Pal Joensen who stopped the clock at 15:08.90.  Of note, American junior swimmer Sean Grieshop finished in 9th overall with the 3rd-fastest time of his young career, a 15:30.88.

WOMEN’S 400 IM – FINAL

The #IronLady fittingly finished up her World Cup domination with a gold medal in one of her strongest events. 4:33.88 moves Hosszu to first in the world rankings, dropping over two seconds from her 4:36.39 mark from Doha earlier this week.  Silver tonight went to Japan’s Sakiko Shimizu, whose time of 4:36.35 now ranks as 2nd-fastest in the world. USA’s Catilin Leverenz also moves herself higher in the rankings, sitting in 3rd on the list with her bronze medal-winning time of 4:36.54.

Hosszu finishes her meet with 3 gold medals and 5 silver medals and is far and away the points winner of the entire series for the women.