The start lists for the first meet of the second World Cup Cluster have been released and American swimming star Missy Franklin is slated to swim five events. She will compete head-to-head with Australian World Champion Emily Seebohm in the backstroke events this weekend. Franklin is the top seed in the women’s 200 freestyle and the 200 backstroke, while Seebohm is the top seed in the 50 and 100 backstrokes.
The only other American national team member entered in Hong Kong is SwimMAC Elite sprinter Madison Kennedy, although former National Team member Sean Mahoney is entered in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and the 200 IM.
Mahoney won a gold medal in the 200 breaststroke at the 2011 Pan American Games and has continued training since then. Last year he posted Olympic Trial qualifying times in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes with 1:02.21 and 2:13.05, respectively. His career best in the 200 breaststroke is 2:09.79 from the World University Games in 2009.
Other big names competing this weekend include Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, Australia’s Cate Campbell and Bronte Campbell, Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen, and Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson. Hosszu is up to charging head first at this meet as well and is entered in all sixteen events once again.
View the women’s start list here.
On the men’s side, the biggest stars entered for this weekend’s meet includes South Africa’s Cameron Van Der Burgh, Serbia’s Velimir Stjepanovic, Japan’s Nakamura Katsumi, and Hungary’s David Verraszto.
I don’t understand why Missy is taking the time to fly half way around the world to race this weekend! Visiting Hong Kong must be exciting, I’m sure there is prize money to be won, and racing is fun, but especially after her performance in Kazan, shouldn’t she be putting in the hardest work of her life to catch-up with the competitors who beat her this summer? If she is, she won’t be competitive now, and if she’s not she may not be able to improve he times enough next summer to get on the podium.
Will be interesting to see how Belinda Hocking fares this weekend. She swam some good times at the recent Victorian state short course championships