Chad Le Clos Earns 145th World Cup Gold With 200 Fly Win In Doha

FINA WORLD CUP SERIES – DOHA

• Thursday, November 7th – Saturday, November 9th
• Hamad Aquatic Center, Doha, Qatar
• LCM
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Recap
• Live Results

Day 2 of the 2019 FINA World Cup Series’ final stop in Doha, Qatar came to conclusion in fast fashion tonight, as we saw one World Cup Record, one National Record, and several notable performances take place at Hamad Aquatic Center.

Ukrainian Myhailo Romanchuk busted out a new series mark in the men’s 1500m, with the freestyle ace touching in a time of 14:51.61. The World Championships silver medalist in this event in Gwangju, Korea, represented 1 of 3 swimmers tonight under the 15:00 barrier. Joining him was runner-up Jan Micka of the Czech Republic, who produced a time of 14:58.30 for silver, while Gergely Gyurta of Hungary got it done for bronze in 14:59.88.

For Romanchuk, his time tonight overtook the previous World Cup Record of 14:55.06 set by Italian Olympic champion Gregorio Paltrinieri 4 years ago. You can read more bout Romanchuk’s impressive outing here.

Dutch maestro Kira Toussaint followed up her newly-minted national record in the women’s 100m back from last week in Kazan by matching the same time tonight. She first established herself as the top seed of the women’s 100m back heats, producing a morning mark of 59.75 to clock the only sub-minute outing.

Tonight, the 25-year-old fired off splits of 28.84/30.30 to once again get her hand on the wall first in a time of 59.14, matching her national record and shutting down 2 Australians in the form of Emily Seebohm (59.30) and Kaylee McKeown (59.60). You can read more about Toussaint’s swim here.

Morozov added to his list of 7-for-7 victories tonight, this time achieving the feat in the men’s 50m back. He just edged out a charging American in Michael Andrew, with Morozov touching in 24.75 to MA’s 24.79. The pair produced a 2-man race, as Aussie Bradley Woodward touched well behind in 25.35.

As for Morozov, he was quicker on his home soil last week, topping the podium in a time of 24.55. His quickest of the season is the 24.40 he registered at the Singapore stop to earn a new World Cup Record.

Andrew’s PB rests at the 24.39 the 20-year-old logged at this year’s Sette Colli. His fastest of the World Cup circuit was also in Kazan, but back in 2018 when he hit a time of 24.49. For 2019, MA’s World Cup quickest is the 24.60 he put up last week.

Morozov eased his way to the wall first in the men’s 100m free event as well. He earned the only sub-49 second time of the field in 48.50. Behind him were Alex Graham of Australia and Szebastian Szabo of Hungary who earned respective results of 49.03 and 49.13.

The former USC Trojan Morozov has been as quick this year as 47.88 in Singapore, a time which teammate Vladislav Grinev overtook in 47.78 last week for a new World Cup Record.

South Africa’s Chad Le Clos produced a winning effort of 1:57.66 in the men’s 200m fly to earn his 145th World Cup gold medal. That was paired with his 100m fly win from last night.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu notched the fastest time of the women’s 400m IM field in 4:37.39. Although she produced the only sub-4:40 effort of the final, her time needed to be much quicker if she wanted to gain some ground on C1 in the point standings. The Iron Lady will need to produce something magical in the 200m IM tomorrow for her to have any chance of catching the Aussie.

Runner-up to Hosszu was Zsuzsanna Jakabos in 4:40.19, while Korean national record holder Kim Seoyeong got to the wall ni 4:40.23 for bronze. That was quicker than her 4:40.55 outing at this year’s World Championships that rendered the Asian star 10th and out of the final.

Danish mama Jeanette Ottesen powered her way to a hard-fought victory in the women’s 50m fly. The 31-year-old Olympian scored a gold medal-worthy tine of 26.06 to get her hand on the wall first. That out-touched runner-up C1 of Australia who notched 26.23 for silver.

In Kazan, Ottesen was 3rd in 26.11 while C1 reaped silver in 26.08 behind winner Arina Surkova, who registered a new Russian national record of 25.62 en route to topping the podium in front of her home nation.

There was a tie for the bronze in tonight’s 50m fly race, however, as Sweden’s Michelle Coleman and Taiwan’s Huang Mei-Chien each touched in a time of 26.76. The latter owns the Taiwanese national record with the 26.68 she logged in May of this year, so her time tonight was less than .10 away from that effort.

As for Coleman, her lifetime best is represented by the 26.14 she notched in Berlin.

Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan proved too much to handle for the men’s 50m breast field, with the national record holder busting out a mark of 27.07 for the win. That kept a .04 advantage over Brazilian Felipe Lima‘s 27.11, while Dutch national record holder Arno Kamminga was also in the hunt in 27.12.

Additional Winners:

• Brazil’s Jhennifer Conceicao took the women’s 100m breaststroke gold tonight, stopping the clock in a time of 1:08.28. That was well off of last week’s winner in Kazan, Arianna Castiglioni, who clocked 1:07.59 for gold.
• Jakabos topped the women’s 200m free field this evening, punching a time of 1:58.86 over Aussie Mikkayla Sheridan‘s silver medal-worthy 1:59.04. Jakabos owns a PB in this event of 1:57.68 from 2011. Her quickest of 2019 is represented by the 1:58.40 she snagged in Singapore during this series.
• Japan’s Keita Sunama was successful in the men’s 200m IM, clocking a winning time of 1:59.28 as the only swimmer under 2:00.