The Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and top leader on the men's ranking Vladimir Morozov of Russia each claimed two gold medals on the first day of the FINA Swimming World Cup in Beijing (CHN) on Friday November 2, while local favourites Xu Jiayu and three other Chinese swimmers won four medals for the hosts team.

Hosszu, who collected 31 medals (20-3-8) from the previous stops and No.1 in the World Cup medal tally before the Beijing leg, took two more golds in the 100m individual medley 57.05 and 200m butterfly 2:02.88.

"I am happy with the time. I am getting faster in each event. It was very nice to compete here in Beijing. The crowd is always great in China and I feel the love in the Water Cube. I swam a good time in 200m breaststroke this morning, but in the evening it was just for training because I had a good time in the 200m fly. I arrived in Beijing two days ago and I still have jag-let, but I enjoy racing and travelling," said Hosszu.

Morozov dominated the men's 100m IM in 50.84 and the 50m freestyle 20.97.

"Two races, two golds. Can't be any better than that. I try to be faster in the 100 IM but today’s time is OK. I will try my best in Tokyo and Singapore. It is pretty tough to fight against the time difference. I feel a little bit headachy, but I am an experienced swimmer so I can handle it. Since the competition lasts for three days instead of two days in the past, we can have more time to rest and better results. We can break more World Records," said the Russian veteran.

Xu Jiayu, 100m backstroke World champion in Budapest, clocked 1:49.08 in the men's 200m backstroke, beating Australian Mitchell Larkin 1:50.72.

"It is my personal best and I think I might break the national record set by myself. But I forget what was my record. I think I can be better in the next two legs of the cluster," Xu said.

16-year-old Li Bingjie won the women's 400m freestyle in 3:59.20 and Ji Xinjie snatched the title in the men's 400m freestyle in3:40.82. Li Zhuhao gave the host team its fourth gold in the men's 100m butterfly 50.74.

Ranomi Kromowidjojo from the Netherlands denied Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden in the women's 50m freestyle by winning in 23.48. Sjostrom had to concede for a silver (23.54). She was also second in the 100m IM 57.71.

In other events, Kira Toussaint from the Netherlands took victory in the women's 50m backstroke (26.21), beating former World champion Fu Yuanhui (26.33) and Emily Seebohm of Australia (26.39). Liu Xiang, who just broke the long course World record at Jakarta Asian Games, came fourth in 26.49.

"I made a mistake by missing one stroke before the turn that made my result very slow. I was not good at turns in short course," Liu said.

Yuliya Efimova of Russia was the fastest in women's 200m breaststroke (2:16.98) and her teammate Kirill Prigoda won the men's 100m breaststroke in 56.61. A record-high 244 swimmers compete in Beijing which is the first leg of the last cluster of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2018. The event will stop in Tokyo and end in Singapore.