A happy ending for big stars, such as Vladimir Morozov (RUS), Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), Mitchell Larkin (AUS), Alia Atkinson (JAM), Kirill Prigoda (RUS), Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED) and Katinka Hosszu (HUN) all snatched golds on the last day of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2018 in the Water Cube, Beijing, China, on Sunday November 4, while two-time Olympic champion Ye Shiwen made a strong comeback after two years of rest.
Both three-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu and men's ranking leader Vladimir Morozov finished full-handed with four gold medals, while Chinese swimmers grabbed altogether 10 golds.
Sarah Sjostrom, overall points leader before the Beijing stop, kept her lead as she dominated the women's 100m butterfly 55.58, but lost to her long-time rival Ranomi Kromowidjojo of Netherlands in the 100m freestyle by 0.05. The Dutch veteran won in 51.51.
"Sarah and I are friends, we are also competitors. It was great that I won the 100m free while she won the 100m fly. We just changed the position. It is always great to compete here in the Water Cube as it brings back a lot of great memories of the past. I will miss this place as I know that the venue will turn into the Ice Cube at the end of the year. A gold medal on the last day was perfect for me," said Kromowidjojo who competed her first Olympic Games and won her first Olympic medal in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
After being upset in the previous events, Jamaica's Alia Atkinson made a strong 50m breaststroke race and won in 29.16, beating Yuliya Efimova of Russia (29.63).
"I felt I come back from the jet lag better today. Hopefully I will be better in the next stops in Tokyo and Singapore and I will not wake up at mid-night anymore. I am happy I had a good race in the last day in the Water Cube," Atkinson said.
Katinka Hosszu was unbeatable in her favourite 200m IM and won in 2:05.25 while Emily Seebohm of Australia finished second (2:07.86) and Chinese Olympic champion Ye Shiwen, came third 2:08.16.
"For two years I focused on my study and now I am back preparing for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In fact, I never left the pool. I was just absent from the competitions for a while. I needed time to recharge myself and overcome the fear of competition, high-expectation and failure," said Ye, who also entered finals of the 200m breaststroke and 100m IM but was not on the podium.
Hosszu earlier finished third in the 200m backstroke behind Minna Atherton of Australia 2:02.02 and Emily Seebohm 2:02.22, while Yang Caiping from the host team sealed victory in the women's 800m freestyle 8:29.05
In other men's events, overall points leader Vladimir Morozov claimed the victory in the 50m butterfly (22.27); Mitchell Larkin claimed the 100m backstroke title (49.97); Kirill Prigoda continued his winning strike and claimed the 200m breaststroke gold in 2:01.59; David Verraszto of Hungary met no troubles in the 400m IM (4:04.09); Blake Pieroni of USA topped the 200m freestyle (1:42.65), beating Ji Xinjie 1:42.87 and backstroke World champion Xu Jiayu (1:43.59).
Xu later won the mixed medley relay with his Chinese teammates Zhang Yufei, Zhu Menghui and Yan Zibei 1:38.69.
A total of record-high 244 swimmers competed in the Beijing leg while the next FINA Swimming World Cup will move to Tokyo (November 9-11) and finally conclude in Singapore on November 15-17.