The third leg of the Swimming World Cup in Eindhoven had an explosive start with a World Junior Record by Wang Jianjiahe, followed by a Vladimir Morozov and his World Record in 100m IM.

Not to be entirely lost on the night was the fact that double Olympic champion from 2012 Ranomi Kromowidjojo produced a new National Record in the women’s short course meters….backstroke? And in the same flow she won the 50m freestyle. Katinka Hosszu won two distances.

The highlights

World record !!!!!!! That blared through the swimming theater, named after Pieter van den Hoogenband, and it was the 50.26 on the 100 IM. This top time was recorded by Vladimir Morozov, who was 0.04s faster than two years ago in Berlin. He immediately cashed a premium of 10,000 US dollars!.

The first finals started with the 400 meters freestyle and immediately smashed the pan because the Chinese Jianjiahe Wang approached the world record of Mireia Belmonte (3.54.52 in August 2013) and there only 0.11s of removed. Her 4.54.63 was good for a WR junior. With this she rescued her compatriot Bingjie Li, who swam 3.59.14 in Tokyo in mid-November 2017. In the men’s event an easy victory went to Mack Horton (AUS). The Olympic champion triumphed in 3.39.52.

On the 50 back the result was different than expected on the basis of the heat results and that meant a sensation. World record holder Medeiros from Brazil honored her status with the winning 26.07, but the second place was for Ranomi Kromowisjojo, who, despite slipping away at the start, finished in 26.10. In doing so, she referred Kira Toussaint (26.13) to third place and succeeded her as the record holder. Kromowidjojo now has the national record in three different 50 meter disciplines: 50 back, 50 butterfly and 50 free! It was showtime with exiting competitions and strong winners in the first SWC short course meet 2018.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu won the 200m butterfly and defeated with a time of 2.02.87 China’s Zhang Yufei (2.03.09). Her second win was in the 100m IM.

Great atmoshere Inspired by the great atmosphere in the Pieter van den Hoogenband swimming stadium, Chad le Clos swam to the gold butterfly in 49.56 and Mitch Larkin, AUS did the same in 200m backstroke.

There was hoped for a possible podium place by local hero Arno Kamminga, but in the final of the 100m breaststroke his start was too slow (halfway 27.27 and turned eighth). His 57.75 brought him in sixth place. Gold, silver and bronze were for the Russians Kirill Prigoda (56.88) and Anton Chupkov (57.01) and the Brazilian Felipe Lima (57.14) Juliya Efimova was at world record rate for 200 meters (2.14.57) for a long time, but the Russin girl had to give up too much on the record of Rebecca Soni in the final phase and stuck at 2.15.62. On the waves of enthusiasm in the stands, an unparalleled Ranomi Kromowidjojo knocked on the 50 meter freestyle in 23.25 her Swedish rival Sara Sjostrom (23.67) and the fierce Femke Heemskerk (23.77 pr).

An evening of top competition was decided with a super race by Vladdy Morozov. He sprinted to 20.69 in 50m freestyle men and defeted South Africa’s Bradley Tandy (21.19).

In the smashing violence local favourite Jesse Puts missed the bronze at 0.01s with his time of 21.35. The American Blake Pieroni was a fraction faster with 21.34.