Berlin’s famous Schwimmhalle in the Europasportpark has witnessed a series of historical swimming meets – indeed it was already a World Cup venue back in 1989 when this part of the city was still called East Berlin. Now it was a kind of historical restart: swimming World Cup resumed after a long wait of almost 23 months (the last meet was held in Doha in November 2019, while the last show in Berlin took place 711 days ago).

The opening evening session kicked off in style as it was a home swimmer who grabbed the first title. Isabelle Gose left everyone behind to hit first in the women’s 400m free with a convincing 1.44sec winning gap.

“It’s my first World Cup medal, I got it in one of my favourite pools, so it’s amazing. I was born in Berlin, so I feel like I’m coming home” Gose said.

The men’s event continued where it had been halted back in 2019: Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys won 7/7 two years ago (then in long-course) and now he was a cut above the rest again, this time in the 25m pool. 

“Finally, we are back and I’m happy with this final as the morning was a little bit hard. It was a good and easy race” the Lithuanian said who should have another good run in this event in the coming weeks as he is the reigning short-course world and European champion.

While the 2019 runner-up in overall is now 8/8 in the 400m free at the World Cups, a grand series came to an end later. 2018 and 2019 overall winner Vlad Morozov won 29 races in a row in the men’s 50m free – the Russian had been unbeaten for four years but now he had to settle for a shared bronze in the dash. It was Aussie Kyle Chalmers – Olympic champion in Rio, runner-up in Tokyo in the 100m free – who came home the fastest, just 0.07sec ahead of Hungary Szebasztian Szabo. Chalmers’ outlook might have changed dramatically but his speed is the same as he mentioned that in his post-race Q&A.

“I’m trying to go for the most terrible look I could go for, I got white hair, a really terrible moustache, shaved that up today, so look fast, swim fast, I feel I’ve ticked the boxes” said Chalmers prompting laughs all over the pool.

He shared some thoughts on his win too, though. “We have good swimmers here obviously, Vlad has been really fast and he could have pulled out something special tonight so you had to be fast. It’s good to have one under the belt, even if I personally would have loved to swim a whole lot faster.”

Shortly it became an Aussie double as the women’s 50m free title went to Emma McKeown – not surprisingly. The most decorated female swimmer of the Tokyo Olympics regained most of her speed since August and won her first World Cup title with ease, 0.32sec ahead of Sweden’s Michelle Coleman.

The day’s best swim also came in a dash event. Kyra Toussaint, who had won the last four 50m back finals in 2019, managed to bring down the World Cup record – which is a bigger feat than it looks like at first glimpse. The previous mark stood since 2009, set by China’s Zhao Ying in the last moments of the shiny suit era – now Toussaint nailed it by 0.01sec, and by a fingernail ahead of the Canadian duo of Maggie MacNeil (0.03sec) and Kylie Masse (0.15). MacNeil was the 100m fly Olympic champion in Tokyo, now showed some speed in the backstroke and could beat even 2017 and 2019 100m world champion Masse.

“It was one of the fastest backstroke races ever, three of us under 26 seconds, that’s fantastic” said Toussaint. “It was just like a blink of the eye, here, if you are thinking you’ll probably not go that fast.”

The Dutch had another win, courtesy of Arno Kamminga. His breakthrough had come here in the World Cup back in 2019, since then Kamminga showed a stunning improvement, some even thought he could be a threat to Adam Peaty’s throne. That miracle is yet to happen, but with a total of five silvers from Tokyo and from the Europeans, Kamminga has already been enjoying a brilliant season. How he launched another golden run: he doubled down the 100m and 200m here in Berlin in 2019, now he retained the 100m title and looks for more in the coming days.

A couple of World Cup veterans also delivered: Germany’s Christian Diener won the 200m back, Tom Shields of the US, already appearing among the top finishers in the clusters and overall in 2014, brought home the 100m fly, keeping four-time overall winner South African Chad le Clos at bay.

“We are hanging out with Chad all the time, eating breakfast together, lunch together, hope to still have dinner together” Shields said. “I love the World Cup, it’s where I got my international experience, I turned professional here, it’s so cool.”

If not le Clos, another South African made it, though: young Matthew Sates enjoyed a great evening as he won the 100m IM, after finishing runner-up earlier in the 400m free. Indeed, he prevented an Israeli double in the medley event as Anastasia Gorbenko won it earlier among the women, but Sates managed to withstand the pressure from Yakov Toumarkin who had to settle for silver.

“This is my first international medal and I’m happy with that” said Sates who was all smiles, just like USA’s Tess Howley who claimed gold in the women’s 200m fly and Czech Kristyna Horska who was the surprise winner in the 200m breaststroke.

Both young ladies snatched their first-ever international victory at senior level respectively. “I just love racing, this is my first short-course meet, I think we had a pretty good race” said Howley who staged an exciting duel with team-mate Charlotte Hook to win it by 0.06sec. 

“This World Cup is great, it helps us young athletes to progress as a swimmer and as a person who wants to excel in this sport” Howley added.

More action is coming on Saturday and Sunday from 18.00 CET, stay tuned!

For full results, click here.