Robert Hurley (AUS) was one of the brightest stars in the fourth leg of the FINA /ARENA Swimming World Cup 2008 held in Singapore (SIN) on November 1-2, by establishing a new World Cup Record in the men’s 100m backstroke. Hurley, who had set a World Record in the 50m backstroke in the third meet of the circuit in Sydney, swam the 100m in 50.28, bettering the previous World Cup best mark (50.58) obtained by Thomas Rupprath (GER) in 2002.
Besides Hurley, the men’s competition was dominated by Oussama Mellouli (TUN), who got four more victories – 200m, 400m and 1500m free, as well as the 400m individual medley – in this year’s World Cup. The Tunisian Olympic champion in the 1500m free has now an accumulated total of 18 wins from the four legs of the competition. Stefan Nystrand (SWE) was the fastest man in Singapore, winning the 50m and 100m free, while two more swimmers also got a ‘double’ – Thiago Pereira (BRA) excelled in the 100m and 200m individual medley, while Cameron van der Burgh (RSA) triumphed in the 50m and 100m breaststroke. In the shorter distance, Van der Burgh got the highest performance in Singapore (1022 points for his 26.37 finish time).
In the men’s overall ranking, Christian Sprenger (AUS, seventh best performer in Singapore) is still the leader (60 points), just in front of his team mates Hurley (56) and Matt Jaukovic (52).
In the women’s field, Marieke Guehrer (AUS) continues to dominate the operations and was for a fourth consecutive time the best scorer of the meet. In Singapore, she won the 50m butterfly in 25.56, getting 999 points. In the overall ranking, she reinforced her lead, having now accumulated 100 points. In terms of victories in the Asian leg of this World Cup, Katheryn Meaklim (RSA) was the best in the 200m and 400m individual medley, while the ‘club’ of the double gold medallists also included Melissa Ingram (NZL, 400m free and 200m backstroke) and Sophie Edington (AUS, 50m and 100m backstroke).