After three stops at the 2012 World Cup Series, there has been quite a little bit of shifting at the top of the standings, but the same two swimmers remain in the lead.
By FINA points, on the men’s side, top points went to George Bovell and Kenneth To thanks to their number-one and number-two finishes in the 100 IM, but under 52 seconds. For Bovell, that jumped him into the top three, ahead of the idle Chad le Clos, and into position to earn some big series money after all is said and done.
If Bovell, To, and Daiya Seto swim out the series, it would be hard for anybody to bump them out of the top three, especially with the defending champion le Clos seemingly done for the season.
Laszlo Cseh has a chance. Stockholm was the first meet where he scored, though he’s participated in each of them so far, thanks to a great time chasing Seto in the 400 IM.
On the women’s side, with Daryna Zevina sitting the meet out, Katinka Hosszu again roared into the series lead thanks to her top-scoring 400 IM. With how well she’s swimming, it would be tough for anybody to catch her for the overall series victory. Therese Alshammar, Zsu Jakabos, and Britta Steffen all tightened up the battle with Zevina for 2nd place.
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 the meet gets deeper in Stockholm next weekend.
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 | ||||||||||
| Men | ||||||||||
| # | Athlete | UAE | QAT | SWE | RUS | GER | CHN | JPN | SIN | Total |
| 1 | Kenneth To (AUS) | 25 | 25 | 20 | 70 | |||||
| 2 | Daiya Seto (JPN) | 16 | 20 | 16 | 52 | |||||
| 3 | George Bovell (TRI) | 13 | 13 | 25 | 51 | |||||
| 4 | Chad Le Clos (RSA) | 20 | 16 | 36 | ||||||
| 5 | Darian Townsend (RSA) | 10 | 2 | 3 | 15 | |||||
| 6 | Stanislav Donets (RUS) | 7 | 3 | 5 | 15 | |||||
| 7 | Robert Hurley (AUS) | 1 | 7 | 7 | 15 | |||||
| 8 | Laszlo Cseh (HUN) | 13 | 13 | |||||||
| 9 | Roland Schoeman (RSA) | 10 | 10 | |||||||
| 10 | Kazuya Kaneda (JPN) | 10 | 10 | |||||||
| 11 | Cameron van der Burgh (RSA) | 5 | 5 | |||||||
| 12 | Kosuke Hagino (JPN) | 5 | 5 | |||||||
| 13 | Anthony Ervin (USA) | 3 | 3 | |||||||
| 14 | Marco Koch (GER) | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| 15 | Matthew Targett (AUS) | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| 16 | Thomas Shields (USA) | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 17 | Tom Shields (USA) | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Women | ||||||||||
| # | Athlete | UAE | QAT | SWE | RUS | GER | CHN | JPN | SIN | Total |
| 1 | Katinka Hosszu (HUN) | 25 | 20 | 25 | 70 | |||||
| 2 | Daryna Zevina (UKR) | 20 | 25 | 45 | ||||||
| 3 | Therese Alshammar (SWE) | 7 | 13 | 16 | 36 | |||||
| 4 | Britta Steffen (GER) | 10 | 5 | 20 | 35 | |||||
| 5 | Zsuzsanna Jakabos (HUN) | 3 | 16 | 13 | 32 | |||||
| 6 | Melissa Ingram (NZL) | 16 | 10 | 2 | 28 | |||||
| 7 | Rachel Goh (AUS) | 13 | 1 | 14 | ||||||
| 8 | Sophie Allen (GBR) | 1 | 10 | 11 | ||||||
| 9 | Hang Yu Sze (HKG) | 5 | 3 | 8 | ||||||
| 10 | Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) | 1 | 7 | 8 | ||||||
| 11 | Michelle Coleman (SWE) | 7 | 7 | |||||||
| 12 | Hannah Miley (GBR) | 1 | 5 | 6 | ||||||
| 13 | Therese Michalak (GER) | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||||||
| 14 | Tanja Smid (SLO) | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| 15 | Jennie Johansson (SWE) | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| 16 | Inge Dekker (NED) | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 17 | Anna Dzerkal (UKR) | 1 | 1 | |||||||