2021 FINA WORLD CUP STOP #3 – DOHA
- Thursday, October 21st – Saturday, October 23rd
- Hamad Aquatic Center, Doha, Qatar
- SCM (25m)
- Entries
With the conclusion of the Budapest stop of the 2021 FINA World Cup, we’re already at the halfway point of this year’s concise four-location series.
Doha, Qatar is upon where elite athletes will descend next, with the list of top 10 overall money leaders on both the men’s and women’s sides remaining primarily intact. The only swimmer missing among the upper echelon is Hungary’s Hubert Kos.
But that doesn’t mean we have robust fields all around. The women’s 50m back, for instance, has just 5 entrants while the men’s 1500m free will see just 3 swimmers as it stands right now.
Nevertheless, we’ve compiled our top races to watch this weekend, so mark your calendars for this short course meter showdowns.
Men’s 100m Freestyle
Aussie Kyle Chalmers has proven to be the man to beat through the first two stops in this 100m free event and he’ll see many of the same rivals here in Doha.
Russia’s Vlad Morozov and Dutchman Jesse Puts continue to bring the heat, while World Cup newcomer Hwang Sunwoo will try to steal Chalmers’ thunder.
Sunwoo rarely swims short course meters so we don’t have a solid idea of what to expect from the 18-year-old. However, his best time in long course of 47.56 equates to a 45.96 in SCM which could put Marion’s Chalmers on the defensive.
Women’s 50 Fly
With names like Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands, along with Holly Barratt and Emma McKeon of Australia among the lineup, one can’t be too sure what the outcome of this women’s 50m fly will be.
Barratt took the event in stop #1 in Berlin with a time of 24.77while McKeon reaped gold one week later in Budapest with a personal best of 24.97. Could it be Kromo’s turn to split the Aussies and take gold for herself? We’ll see what transpires this weekend.
Men’s 200 Free
South Africa’s Matt Sates has enjoyed two weeks’ worth of success in this men’s 2free event, reaping victory in Berlin with a time of 1:40.65 and Budapest in a mark of 1:41.51. The former result signified a new World Junior Record for the 18-year-old who has committed to swim at the Univesity of Georgia in the spring.
However, this time around, Sates will not only face Chalmers and Lithuanian Rapsys but the future Bulldog will also have Hwang with which to contend.
Again, rarely on the short course radar, Hwang did final in this event at the Tokyo Olympic Games, placing 7th overall.
Men’s 400 IM
So, um, yeah, there are just 4 entrants in total in this men’s 400m IM, 2 of which are Daiya Seto of Japan and the aforementioned Sates of South Africa.
Sates already downed Seto’s previous short course World Junor Record in the men’s 200m IM and the South African has a chance to accomplish the same feat here in the longer event in Doha.
Seto owns the World Record in his massive 3:54.81 logged at the International Swimming League (ISL) final in 2019. Sates, on the other hand, is chasing the World Junior Record of 3:59.15, the benchmark set by FINA when WJR’s were established.
Entering Doha, Sates’ personal best in this short course 4IM rests at the 4:01.98 he produced in Berlin at the first stop of this FINA World Cup.
Fina World Cup is a joke
I’d like more info about the sentence “Sates, on the other hand, is chasing the World Junior Record of 3:59.15, the benchmark set by FINA when WJR’s were established.” A FINA “benchmark”? A search reveals a 3:59.15 by Daiya Seto on 13 December 2012 at the SC World Championships in Istanbul, but that was “prior” to “official” WJR’s, correct? Thanks for any explanations.
After misreading this article I am now convinced of the existence of Marion Chalmer, swimmer extraordinaire
Hilarious
Thank
Hoping to see the WCs back in Asia next year, with larger fields
And better timezone 😍
tbh I like the non-Asian WCs cos it means I can watch them after work haha, but Asian WCs means I can GO there
No one wants to go to meets in the Middle East…hot? Too expensive? Bad host?
The WORLD CUP 2022. I can’t wait for the outrage . Too hot , too Islamic, slave labour, no.shorts , no alcohol , Police State , no ooman rights , its going to be wonderful . Plus Beijing 2022 – what a year we are in for !
Swimsuit guy did blogs from Dubai last year, it seems accomodations for foreigners is fine.
Based on athlete social medias, accomodations look lovely.
Doha is not Dubai . Dubai is its idiot gaudy cousin that had to be bailed out in the GFC. Its Utah vs Nevada .
Doha is a dump of a city. It has nothing going for it- no city centre, its spread out across desert, the few attractions are miles apart, its too hot to do anything, no alcohol/partying/beaches, you have to drive everywhere on a couple of jammed roads…wasted 2 days there on a stop over.
Oh no I thought Qatar airways is brilliant and would have loved to stop over a couple of days at Doha .. looks like Emirates it is then!
Why so few entries ? FINA may need to review the status of their “world cups” especially during an Olympic year .. not much of a World Cup with only 3 or 4 entries
Yeah, these fields are very weak.
Maybe McKeon will drop the 50 fly this time in favour of the 100 fly to improve her chances of going undefeated.
Actually she’ll probably swim the 100 fly only if she doesn’t win the 50 fly.