Day 1 in Singapore - One World Cup record for Hurley (AUS) in the men’s 100m back

The Australian delegation (with the most foreign swimmers in Singapore – 18) dominated the first day of competition with a total of seven victories and 18 medals ahead of South Africa (three wins and seven awards) and Sweden (two triumphs and five podiums).

Individually, only two swimmers reached 1000 points and bettered the best times of the year – Cameron van der Burgh (RSA) clocked 26.37 in the men’s 50m breaststroke (new African record) and the Australian revelation Robert Hurley finished the men’s 100m backstroke in 50.28 (new World Cup record and record of Oceania). Hurley had established a new World Record in the 50m backstroke in the previous leg of the circuit, in Sydney (AUS).

Also in evidence was the most golden swimmer of the series so far, Tunisian Oussama Mellouli, who won two races - the men’s 400m individual medley and the 400m free – a double win that is rare on the international circuit and one that Mellouli already achieved on three occasions during this World Cup: Durban (RSA), Sydney (AUS) and now Singapore.

With his performance in the 400 IM – 4:02.93, new African record and best performance of the season -, Mellouli got his best result in this World Cup (999 points) and becomes the sixth best performer over this distance in history.

In the 400m free, his main goal was to assure victory (3:42.37) in front of Hurley (3:45.83). With this triumph, Mellouli has now 16 wins in this World Cup (he remains unbeaten in these two events). The second day of the competition also witnessed his victories in the 200m and 1500m free.

Brazilian Thiago Pereira was also brilliant with three medals – he won the men’s 100 IM in 52.74 (best performance of the season, in front of Mellouli, who clocked a new national record in 53.12), and was two times second in the 200m butterfly (1:54.61, behind Australian Christopher Wright in 1:54.38) and in the 400m IM (4:03.06, behind Mellouli).

Also in the men’s events, two new best performances of the year were established after the victory of Stefan Nystrand (SWE) in the 100m free (46.78, faster than Australian Mitchell Patterson in 47.60) and of the Australian Christian Sprenger in the 200m breaststroke in 2:05.48 (fourth consecutive win in the World Cup). Moreover, the new world record holder in the men’s 50m butterfly (Australian Matt Jaukovic) clocked once more under 23 seconds (22.82).

Among women, two performances highlighted this first day in Singapore: the local champion Li Tao (the first swimmer from Singapore to reach an Olympic final, at the 2008 Games in Beijing with a fifth place finish in the 100 butterfly), won her pet event in 56.85 (a new Asian record and best time of the year). She was faster than Sweden’s Sjostrom (57.39) and Australian Guehrer (58.06). Thus, Guehrer lost a precious occasion to obtain her fourth triumph in this event at this World Cup.

Another major performance in the women’s field was established by Australian Sarah Katsoulis in the 100m breaststroke – 1:05.70 (best time of the current season), in front of American Tara Kirk (1:06.33) and Sweden’s Joline Hostman (1:06.42).

South African Katheryn Meaklin was the best in the 200m IM (2:10.59) in front of Russian Svetlana Karpeeva (2:12.43). Meaklim’s victory was the fourth consecutive in this World Cup (among which she clocked the best time in Sydney with 2:10.03). She could have repeated the feat in the 800m free, but her team mate Melissa Corfe was this time the fastest swimmer in the pool, winning in 8:35.75 (Meaklim was second in 8:44.22).

Melissa Ingram continues to shine in the 200m backstroke (winning in 2:05.63, in front of Corfe’s 2:06.34). Ingram missed the gold in the 200m IM (second in 1:56.64), finishing behind Kelly Stubbins (1:56.38), faster in the second half of the race.

Sophie Edington (AUS) obtained in the 50m backstroke her first win of the 2008 World Cup, touching the wall in 27.56. In a close finish, Brazilian Fabiola Molina was second in 27.57. Finally, Therese Alshammar (SWE) was best in the 50m free (24.33), repeating her Durban success. The 2007 winner of the World Cup had skipped the Sydney leg of this year’s circuit.