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Swimming World Cup

BERLIN, Germany - Traditionally the World Cup meeting in Berlin is one of the strongest of the whole circuit. This year it does not make any exception. Though it has a strong “local” significance, from the point of view of the overall participation it may be more appropriate to label it as “glocal”, for its heavily significant international presence.

There are the French, who, this morning, have easily qualified for the finals: Camille Muffat with the fastest time in the 200m freestyle (1:54:21, best performance of the morning with 922 points), Yannick Agnel with the 5th time (a modest 48.65) in the 100m freestyle.

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Swimming World Cup

October 18, 2012 MOSCOW - The second day of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup in Moscow wrapped up with nice performances. Daiya Seto (JPN) won comfortably the men's 1500m free in 15:03.02. Anton Goncharov (UKR) and Mauricio Fiol Villanueva (PER) finished second and third, respectively.

Jessica Hardy (USA) got her first medal of the day in the 100m free, where she finished second (53.74) behind Britta Steffen (GER, 52.92). She then proceeded to capture the gold, only a few minutes later, in the 50m breast (30.29).

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Swimming World Cup

October 17, 2012 MOSCOW - The fourth leg of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup is being held at the Olympijsky Swimming pool in the Russian capital. Russian swimming fans like to say that this pool is very special: since the 1980 Olympics, which took place here also, 46 World and 40 European records were broken, evidencing that these waters are quite "fast". Moscow has played host to the short-course event a total eight times since 2002. For the 2012 edition, more than 330 swimmers entered the competition.

The president of the Russian Swimming Federation, four-time Olympic champion Vladimir Salnikov mentioned at the opening press conference that the competition gives outstanding experience to young Russian swimmers, underlining that for most of them, the World Cup in Moscow was where they made their first mark on the  international swimming stage.

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Swimming World Cup

October 14, 2012 STOCKHOLM - In Hungarian, “Hosszu” means “long” and that is a perfect adjective for Katinka’s effort in the 2012 edition of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup: a long and successful effort, that allowed her to collect eight more medals at the third meet of the Series, held in Stockholm from October 13-14. In the Swedish capital, the Magyar champion was first in the 200m, 400m and 800m free, 100m, 200m and 400m IM, and got the silver in the 200m backstroke and 200m butterfly – being also the fastest performer among women, with her 400m IM win (4:28.01). An impressive harvest considering the versatility needed to swim so many events in only two days! In the first legs of the 2012 edition of this World Cup – Dubai and Doha – Katinka Hosszu earned seven gold medals at each of the events, plus two bronze (for a total 24 podium appearances ahead of Moscow, the upcoming World Cup meet). Moreover, after three legs, Hosszu has swum 10,200m if we consider the number of heats and finals contested!

In the final session of the Swedish meet, Hosszu’s main and successful rival was compatriot Zsuzsanna Jakabos, who managed to beat her in the 200m fly. It was probably the most interesting race of the day, with Hosszu swimming in lane 4 and Jakabos in lane 8. Turning her head to the left side to breathe, Jakabos could perfectly control Hosszu’s effort, while Katinka had notorious problems in matching her challenger’s pace. In the end, Jakabos touched first in 2:06.90 and Hosszu got the silver in 2:07.18. Throughout the competition in Stockholm, Jakabos trailed her teammate, being second in the 200m free and 400m IM, third in the 800m free, 200m back and 200m IM and fifth in the 400m free. The triumph in the 200m butterfly was therefore a rewarding consolation for Jakabos. On day 1, only Melissa Ingram (NZL) beat Hosszu, in the 200m backstroke.

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Swimming World Cup

October 13, 2012 STOCKHOLM - Who will stop Katinka Hosszu? After dominating the first two legs of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup 2012 in Dubai (UAE) and Doha (QAT), winning seven gold medals at each of those meets, the Hungarian versatile star was again the swimmer to beat on the first day of the third leg of the series, being held in Stockholm on October 13-14. The 23-year-old swimmer, 2009 World champion in the 400m individual medley, obtained three titles (and four medals) in the initial day in the Swedish capital and is now, by far, the most successful female swimmer of this year’s World Cup. Moreover, she was the best female performer (919 points) of this first day, thanks to her 200m IM win.

Hosszu’s success at the Eriksdalsbadet in Stockholm started with the triumph in the 800m free, where she got her fastest winning time so far at this World Cup, touching in 8:24.48. The minor medals went to Lotte Friis (DEN, 8:25.96) and to another Magyar swimmer, Zsuzsanna Jakabos, bronze medallist in 8:31.96. Some minutes later, Kosszu was again the best in the 200m free, getting the gold in 1:55.30 – she had been faster in Doha, clocking then 1:54.79. Jakabos was this time second (1:56.31), while Hannah Miley (GBR) finished third in 1:56.58. Hosszu’s winning strategy was once more successful in the 200m individual medley, where she comfortably touched first in 2:08.13, the fastest of her three wins so far in this event at the World Cup. The silver medal was shared by Jakabos and Sophie Allen (GBR) in 2:09.05. The Hungary duet Hosszu-Jakabos was again in action in the 200m backstroke, getting the silver (2:07.44) and bronze (2:08.71) respectively. This time, the gold went to Melissa Ingram (NZL), winner in 2:04.84.

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Swimming World Cup

DOHA, Qatar - Traditionally, Hungarian swimming always favoured long course competitions. Successful swimmers from this country in short course events are rare. We are currently witnessing a change in course that is profitable to the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup as it was brilliantly demonstrated by Hungarian Katinka Hosszu on the final day of the Doha stage at the Hamad swimming complex. The Hungarian swimmer, who has been training at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (USC) for the last few years, was eager to bounce back from this summer's slump at the London Olympics where she missed the podium in the 400 IM (fourth with 58 hundredths of a second behind China's Li).

With her 14 individual gold medals (seven in each leg), one can easily assure that the Hungarian successfully dispelled all doubt and re-affirmed her place among the world's best ahead of the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Istanbul in December.

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Swimming World Cup

DOHA, Qatar - The second stage of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup, which is hosted for the first time by Doha, in Qatar, offers a nice array of athletes with the presence of five Olympic champions or medallists in individual events: South Africans Chad Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, Britta Steffen from Germany, American Anthony Ervin and Hungary's Laszlo Cseh. World record holders (short course) Roland Schoeman (RSA), Evgeny Korotyshkin (RUS) and Therese Alshammar (SWE) are also part of the stellar line-up in Doha. Rising stars include 2010 Youth Olympic Games medallists Australian Kenneth To and Ukrainians Daryna Zevina and Andrii Govorov.

Despite the average number of 115 swimmers from 30 nations entered in the competition, the results were of quality on day 1 with nine best world performances in total. Of the 30 nations competing, 16 climbed the podium and seven of them the highest march of the podium. Australia ranks first with five gold medals and one silver, ahead of Japan (4 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze), Hungary and Sweden (3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze each), South Africa (2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze), Germany (1 gold and 2 silver) and Ukraine (1 gold and 1 bronze).

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Swimming World Cup

DUBAI, UAE – Chad Le Clos may have been king of the pool with his six golds in Dubai last year at the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup, but in tonight’s session on the final day of competition a new queen has been crowned. 

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary came into the meet a relative unknown outside of swimming circles despite having competed at three Olympic Games, but left as the best female performer of the event, and the talk of the town. Hosszu took an amazing seven individual gold medals and one bronze, as well as a silver and an eighth gold in the mixed relay in an extremely heavy programme over the two days.

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Swimming World Cup

DUBAI, UAE – Post Olympic holidays from swimming were a thing of the past tonight as the big names returned to the pool tonight for their first major competition since the Olympics in London almost eight weeks ago. The stellar line up in every race in the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup in Dubai put on a crowd pleasing display of world class swimming, the calibre of which has not been seen since Dubai hosted the World Championships (25m) in 2010.

As anticipated Olympic champions Cameron van der Burgh and Chad Le Clos thrilled the crowds with exciting racing and close fought victories. After qualifying fastest this morning in the 50m breaststroke, van der Burgh took the gold in his only swim of the night ahead of countryman Guilio Zorzi and Glenn Syders of New Zealand. Le Clos had a much tougher fight to overcome Japan’s Daiya Seto who had qualified ahead of him in the 200m butterfly. Seto led for much of the race, but with the crowd roaring, Le Clos managed to overtake in the last few metres to win by .73 of a second. Velimir Stjepanovic swimming for UAE Clubs came in third, much to the delight of the large home crowd.

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FINA Family

FINA has learnt with great sadness the loss of Nick Thierry (CAN) on October 2, 2012 in Toronto. His immense contribution to the Sport of Swimming, throughout his activities as coach, journalist and statistician will long be remembered by the FINA Family.

Nick was a true devoted lover of Swimming, having consecrated it the major part of his life. He was for many years FINA's most valuable source of swimming rankings, a superb and brilliant work very much appreciated by the coaches, athletes, media and fans of the sport in general. He has done it in a discreet but passionate way, sharing his knowledge and experience with many generations of swimming experts.

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