To, Hosszu Take Points Lead After Meet 1 of 2012 FINA World Cup

After the completion of the first meet of the 2012 FINA World Cup Series, two clear leaders have emerged at the top of the standings.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu not only took home the most money, with $11,000, from Dubai, she also had the best swim on the women’s side thanks to her 400 Free swim of 4:02.64. For the men, it was Kenneth To’s Australian Record in the 100 IM at 51.43 that took home the most points, and it wasn’t even close.

It’s also clear that, at least through the first meet, the men far outperformed the women.

Last year’s series winners, Chad le Clos and Therese Alshammar, sit 2nd and 6th in their respective rankings.

Remember that these standings are different than those of the money list, published here.

How the Scoring System Works

At each meet of the World Cup, athletes will be ranked by their single best performance, according to the FINA Points Table (which is a cross-event power points system). The top 10 men and top 10 women receive points for that meet, which go to their overall series score. At the end of the series, the three men and three women with the most combined World Cup Points (not to be confused with FINA points – it doesn’t matter what the margin of FINA points is) will receive the prize money.

Keep in mind that there are bonuses for any World Records set (20), and points for the final meet of the season in Singapore will be doubled, meaning that it would be a challenge for anyone who didn’t swim the final meet to finish in the money. There are 7 total meets in the series, and so plenty of time left to make up ground on the leaders as things heat up in Doha starting Friday.

The tie between Anthony Ervin and Marco Koch was broken by the fact that Ervin’s second-best swim (finals of the 50 free) was better than Koch’s.

The Prizes

The overall series standings will award prizes as follows to the highest scoring man and woman in the series:

1st – $100,000
2nd – $50,000
3rd – $30,000

The Standings