Matthew Sates, Siobhan Haughey, Chad Le Clos back like they never left on opening day of the FINA Swimming World Cup

With many swimmers taking off the 2022 summer after an intense and long preparation for the Olympics, this meet served as a “first meet of the season” for swimmers like Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, who raced to a 3:56.52 in the 400 freestyle.

Haughey won two medals at the Tokyo Olympics in the 100 and 200 freestyle, and set the world record to conclude 2021 in the SCM 200 free at the World Short Course Championships. Injuries kept her out of racing this summer at the World Championships, but she showed no signs of slowing down with her swim on Friday, winning over the Czech Republic’s Barbora Seemanova (4:00.15) and Germany’s own Isabel Gose (4:00.19).

The time puts Haughey 12th all-time as she improves on her own best.

“This is my first race back,” Haughey said. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect racing internationally for the first time in 10 months. I wanted to see where I’m at, and looking at the results right now, I think I’m in a really good spot.”

Haughey continued: “It’s great, dropping a 3:56. I wasn’t expecting that. But I’ve been training really hard and I’m really happy to know this is where I am at right now. This definitely exceeds where I expected to be.”

For swimmers like South Africa’s Matthew Sates and Chad Le Clos, this World Cup stop is serving as a chance to get back to old winning ways.

Le Clos has been vocal recently with his struggles with depression leading into the Olympics in 2021, including an incident out of the pool that happened in January 2021 that was “worse than my parents having cancer.”

Le Clos did not reach the podium at the Olympics in Tokyo, and scratched his swims from the 19th FINA World Championships due to illness, so we have not seen him at his best in quite some time.

In Berlin, however, his 100m butterfly was the tenth fastest swim of all-time, and his fastest in nearly two years, as Le Clos swam a 48.58, just off the FINA Swimming World Cup record of 48.48 set by Evgenii Korotyshkin in 2009. He won with relative ease over the likes of Olympic bronze medalist Noe Ponti (49.38) of Switzerland, whom Le Clos called "an absolute stud."

“I’m absolutely over the moon,” Le Clos said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better start. It was very important for me to get the win tonight. The time wasn’t important; I couldn’t really care about the time. I just wanted to win, bad. I’ve taken a lot of losses lately and I’m done with that now.”

For Matthew Sates, he came in with the title of “FINA Swimming World Cup Overall Series defending champion” under his name, a slew of good performances and world junior records followed him as he was the overall World Cup winner in 2021. 

Sates couldn’t quite translate that success to 2022 until today, where he swam slightly slower at the 19th FINA World Championships and the Commonwealth Games than he did at the Mare Nostrum in May.

Sates though showed no ill effects from that disappointing summer, as he won the 400 freestyle with a 3:36.30, improving his best times and moving up to 13th all-time with a new African record.

This is my favourite pool in the world,” Sates said. “This race means a lot to me.

“Coming in as 2021 overall Swimming World Cup champ and winning my first race of the 2022 short course season, I was pretty nervous coming into this, knowing that this race would be the determining factor. I went faster than last year; a year ago I was splitting a 3:40, 3:39 and now I’m on a 3:36 so… I’m happy with that, for sure.”

Some swimmers kept their momentum rolling from their strong summers, with recent FINA World Champions Kylie Masse, Nic Fink and Thomas Ceccon winning their respective events. Masse won the 50m backstroke in a 26.15, while Fink won the 100m breaststroke at 56.43, and Ceccon closed the day with a win in the 100m IM at 51.52. Ceccon’s time was slightly off his best time of 51.40 but it was his first win in the series for 2022. 

Poland’s Kasia Wasick, who has been improving late in her career, won the 50m freestyle at 23.32 as she was just off her own best time of 23.30 at age 30. Wasick could put the World Cup on world record watch as she chases the 22.93 mark of Ranomi Kromowidjojo.

Perhaps the biggest upset of the day came from Trinidad & Tobago’s Dylan Carter, who swam a 20.77 to put himself up to 23rd all-time in the 50m freestyle as he out-touched the likes of past Olympic champions Kyle Chalmers (21.04) and Florent Manaudou (21.05).

USA’s Shaine Casas scored a win in the 200 backstroke with a 1:50.02, while France’s Beryl Gastaldello (57.76) took care of business in the 100 IM as they start their quests to potentially capture the overall World Cup title.

Other winners on the day included Italy’s Ilaria Cusinato in the 200 butterfly (2:05.30) and Tes Schouten of the Netherlands in the 200 breaststroke at 2:19.55. 

All the Winners - and Times!

Overall Series Standings | Where we are after Day 1 of the first FINA Swimming World Cup stop

Matthew Sates is leading after one day with 36 points, while USA’s Beata Nelson, who was second in the 100 IM by 0.06 to Gastaldello, is leading the women’s standings with 30 points.