As expected, gold for Mellouli, Bal, Cielo, Spenger, Kirk and more on Day 2 of World Cup in Brazil

The 100m free women’s race was marked by a disqualification: Kira Volodina (RUS) was punished for a false start. This made no changes between the leaders: Marieke Guehrer finished 1st (her 2nd victory of the meet) – Joselin Lillhage (SWE) and Tatiana Lemos-Barbosa got silver and bronze.

Mellouli captured another gold in the 200 free just several minutes after his first start. The swimmer finished a full body length ahead of Rodrigo Castro (BRA) – 1:44.58.

Valentina Artemyeva (RUS) celebrated her very first World Cup victory. She won the 50m breaststroke (30.78) and this was a big surprise for the swimmer herself: Artemyeva made one more stroke than usual on the first lap and did the same on the last one. But the speed of her swim was high enough to leave behind the favourite – Tara Kirk (USA) – in 30.89.

The men’s 100m breaststroke delivered a new points record: Christian Sprenger (AUS) clocked 58.19 that means 981 points on the FINA score table.

Korotyshkin (RUS) got his first victory in the 100m butterfly with 50.86 – an extremely good time for the first stage of World Cup.

Actually the main idea for many swimmers at the beginning of the season is to increase their shape by making as many starts in a short period as possible. Mellouli said that he has had no time for serious preparations after the Olympics – there was a long celebration of his victory in his native country and when the swimmer returned to USA, where he swims permanently, he found that he is not in as good condition when compared to the US swimmers.

In Belo Horizonte, Mellouli took part in six races and had a good possibility to win all three events on the second day. But after his first two performances he had bad luck: his suit unzipped in the water after starting the 200m IM and the Olympic Champion finished third.

The shortest and fastest race of the program – 50m free men – finished as could be predicted: with the second triumph of Beijing sprint Champion Cesar Filho Cielo, BRA. The result was quite high, as always happens when there are at least two strong swimmers side by side. The Brazilian scored 21.32 and Stefan Nystrand (SWE) had 21.50.

Tara Kirk took revenge over Artemyeva in the 200m breaststroke. This distance – the longest one in breaststroke – wasn’t a strong point for the Russian athlete: a former fins-swimmer, Artemyeva used to work more with her legs, but not arms. But she decided to do her best even if she would be “dead” at the end of the race. She succeeded: Kirk got the victory at the end, but the time of the Russian girl was higher that she ever had in long course.

One more revenge was taken by Randall Bal over Donets on the 200m back: the American was leading during the whole race and scored 1:54.11.