The sixth meet of the 2008 FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup, held in Stockholm (SWE) on November 11-12, was the most successful so far in terms of performances. Four World Records and one World Cup record were established during the two-day competition in the Swedish capital.
Among the new World Record holders there was Peter Marshall (USA) in the men’s 50m backstroke (23.05) and 100m backstroke (49.94), Cameron van der Burgh (RSA) in the men’s 50m breaststroke (25.94) and Therese Alshammar (SWE) in the women’s 50m butterfly (25.31). With these results, eight World Records - four in Stockholm, two in Sydney and two in Moscow - were set so far in this edition of the World Cup.
Moreover, Katheryn Meaklim (RSA) set a new World Cup record in the women’s 400m individual medley – 4:27.21.
Before the last leg of the 2008 World Cup in Berlin on November 15-16 – in the German meet, points will be doubled -, the leaders of the overall ranking are, among men, Cameron van der Burgh with 160 points, followed by Robert Hurley (AUS) with 83 and Peter Marshall with 73. Burgh’s advantage seems comfortable to assure the overall win of the series and the only hypothetical way for Hurley to still get the US$ 100,000 for the first place is to obtain the best performance in Berlin and establish two World Records – hoping also than Burgh will not score.
In the women’s field, the fight is more open, with Marieke Guehrer (AUS) leading with 129 points and Therese Alshammar in second with 105. With this difference, everything is still possible in Berlin for these two swimmers. In the third spot, Katheryn Meaklim (58 points) seems in a more difficult position to get the overall triumph.