The debut final of this Sunday’s evening session of the FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup 2017 in Berlin was a thrilling one of Men’s100m Breaststroke, where Kirill Prigoda (RUS) clinched victory in 56.35s, just the blink of an eye in front of Cameron van der Burgh (RSA/56.38s), Ilya Shymanovich (BLR/56.57s) touched third.
Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) clearly set the mark in the 50m fly (24.57s) but did not manage to improve her time from the morning to attack the World Record set in November 2009 by fellow Swedish Therese Alshammar. The two Dutch ladies Ranomi Kromowidjojo (24.95s) and Maaike de Waard (25.24s) closed the podium. The men went later on over the same distance and Sjostrom’s kick-off press conference partner Chad le Clos could also claim the title in 22.32 seconds, closely followed by Yauhen Tsurkin (RUS/22.49s) and Adam Barrett (GBR/22.53s). He underlined once more in front of the audience that he is keen on returning here as he really feels good in the pool and with the support from the Berlin spectators.
Both of the two races following the Women’s 50m Butterfly had a new World Cup Record on offer: Vladimir Morozov (RUS) beat the existing record in the 100m free with 45.23 seconds, followed by Chad le Clos (RSA/45.78s) and Kacper Majchrzak (POL/46.19s), whereas Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu swam always in front in the 400m Individual Medley and comfortably won in 4:19.82 minutes, chasing her own World Record and missing it in the end by less than four tenths only. Mireia Belmonte (ESP/4:22.55) was second and the Australian Blair Evans touched third, almost ten seconds behind Hosszu (4:29.56).
From the two backstroke races over 200 meters, and 50 m respectively, Radoslaw Kawecki (POL/1:48.20) and Emily Seebohm (AUS/26.15s) came off as winners. Masaki Kaneko (JAP/1:49.11) and Christian Erik Diener (GER/1:49.30) completed the male medal trio whereas Kira Toussaint (26.24s) and Maaike de Waard (26.55s/both Netherlands) closed the women’s podium.
Sarah Sjostrom (SWE/1:51.56), being on a roll these days, secured another gold medal tonight in the 200m free in front of Federica Pellegrini (ITA/1:52.05) and Femke Heemskerk (NED/1:52.23). Gabriele Detti (ITA/14:18.33) comfortably grabbed gold over the longest distance of 1500 meters free, followed by Henrik Christiansen (NOR/14:21.53) and Wojciech Wojdak (POL/14:30.57).
Berlin’s permanent World Cup participant Alia Atkinson (JAM) messed up the top 3 order of the preliminaries in 200m Breaststroke clocking 2:18.56 and left Rikke Pedersen (DEN/2:19.52) and Fanny Lecluyse (BEL/2:19.96) in the dust.
In the last individual race of the day, the German Philip Heintz gave the home crowd great cause for joy by comfortably winning the 200m medley in 1:52.64. After his golden success in the 100m Breaststroke in the first race, Kirill Prigoda (RUS/1:54.05) secured a silver medal this time, bronze went to Kenneth To (JAP/1:54.97).
In the concluding Mixed 4x50m Medley Relay, which is always meant to be a thrilling event for participants and spectators likewise, the Dutch showed off their team skills by claiming gold (1:38.41) and, thus, confirmed the mark they left during the races in the course of the whole day. The Finnish finished second (1:38.71) whilst the team from Poland went for bronze in 1:39.70 minutes.
