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The 2018 FINA World Cup Singapore marks the first day of competition at the final stop of the 2018 World Cup series. The preliminary session featured twelve events, where Michael Andrew and Katinka Hosszu each earned two top seeds for the first night of finals.
Women’s 400 Freestyle
Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands kept her World Cup success rolling by cruising to the top seed in the 400 Freestyle. Her time of 4:08.62 easily won the prelim over Germany’s Reva Foos (4:10.03) and Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas (4:10.17). With a season best of 4:00.03, Heemkerk should win the event at finals.
She will be joined by Madison Wilson (4:10.90), Olivia Adams (4:13.91), Nam Wai Ho (4:13.94), Szu-An Chen (4:16.57) and Vitalina Simonova (4:17.79).
Men’s 400 Freestyle
Australia’s Mack Horton will find himself in a similar position, as his season best of 3:39.52 is the best in the field. His morning swim of 3:45.83 gave him the top seed over USA’s Blake Pieroni (3:48.91) and pair of teammates Bowen Gough (3:49.35) and Jared Gilliland (3:49.87).
They will be joined in the final by Velimir Stjepanovic (3:50.10), David Verraszto (3:50.41), Kushagra Rawat (3:52.18) and Guo-Ting Huang (3:52.26).
Women’s 100 IM
The same cannot be said for the women’s 100 IM, where a number of swimmers could come out with the win. Katinka Hosszu led the preliminaries in 57.18, about half a second off her World Record. Sarah Sjostrom was next in 58.10 with Emily Seebohm (59.13), Siobhan O’Connor (59.46) and Alia Atkinson (59.66) not far behind. Tayla Lovemore (1:00.55), Yulia Efimova (1:00.67) and Franziska Weidner (1:00.69) will round out the final.
Men’s 100 IM
The USA’s Michael Andrew was right on his season best to win the men’s race in 51.74. Kenneth To (52.08) and Vlad Morozov (52.12), the current World Record in this event, will give him a challenge in the final. Also in the mix will be Wang Shun (52.70), Mitchell Larkin (52.90), Hiromasa Fujimori (53.19), Keita Sunama (53.48) and Matthew Wilson (53.61).
Women’s 50 Backstroke
Kira Toussaint led a tight battle for the top eight in the women’s 50 Backstroke. Her swim of 26.44 came in just ahead of Seebohm (26.70), Ranomi Kromowidjojo (26.75) and Minna Atherton (26.82). Of the competitors, Seebohm holds the quickest time so far this season in 26.05. Madison Wilson (27.36), Toto Kwan To Wong (27.40), Zoe Williams (28.11) and Yaxin Liu (28.16) placed fifth through eighth to advance to the final.
Men’s 200 Backstroke
Larkin was quickly back in the pool to hit the wall first in the 200 Backstroke prelims. He led the way in 1:52.02 ahead of Omar Pinzon Garcia (1:52.71) and Yakov Yan Toumarkin (1:53.46). Australia then had the next three qualifiers in Tristan Hollard (1:53.65), Travis Mahoney (1:54.19) and Bradley Woodward (1:54.22). Sunama (1:54.23) and Xu Jiayu (1:55.25) will also race in the heat. Jiayu holds the top time in the world this year (1:48.32) while Larkin holds the World Record in 1:45.63 from 2015.
Women’s 200 Butterfly
Hosszu cruised in at 2:08.07 for the top spot in the 200 Butterfly. Zhang Yufei will be a challenger after posting a 2:10.44 and the second-fastest swim in the world this year in Eindhoven.
Alexandra Wenk led a close race for the remaining spots in 2:11.01. She was followed by Gemma Cooney (2:11.07), Lin Xintong (2:11.55), Boglarka Kapas (2:12.32), Hang Yu Sze (2:12.80) and Kin Lok Chan (2:13.02).
Men’s 100 Butterfly
China’s Li Zhuhao (50.61) and Singapore’s Joseph Schooling (50.97) posted the seventh- and fourteenth-best times so far this year in the 100 Butterfly. The swim for Schooling was just off the country’s National Record in this event. Yauhen Tsurkin (51.42), Matthew Temple (51.51), Masayuki Umemoto (51.66), Sajan Prakash (51.73), Jan Eric Friese (51.92) and Kuan-Hung Wang (51.98) will also race in the final.
Women’s 200 Breaststroke
Ye Shiwen led the women’s breaststroke prelim this time around in 2:23.57. Russian pair Vitalina Simonova and Efimova were next in 2:24.96 and 2:27.05, respectively with Atkinson fourth in 2:28.69. Christie May Chue (2:30.25), Hoi Kiu Lam (2:31.17), Yu-Chen Wu (2:31.67) and Jing-An Chen (2:31.74) placed fifth through eighth.
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
Ilya Shymanovich was first in a close race in the men’s breaststroke coming in at 57.13. Anton Chupkov was second in 57.66 with Wilson third (57.81) and Yan Zibei (57.87) fourth. Joining them in the final will be Arno Kamminga (58.16), Fujimori (58.34), Zac Stubblety-Cook (58.36) and Peter Stevens (58.56). Of these men, Zibei holds the quickest time so far this season in 56.96.
Women’s 50 Freestyle
It was a routine women’s 50 Freestyle prelim with Sjostrom (23.48), Heemskerk (23.81), Kromowidjojo (24.09) and Pernille Blume (24.17) making up the top four. They will be joined by Zhu Menghui (24.20), Toussaint (24.45), Liliana Ibanez Lopez (24.74) and Yufei (24.96).
Men’s 50 Freestyle
Andrew came away with another top seed, this time in 21.15 in the 50 Freestyle. Morozov was a close second in 21.25 with Kyle Chalmers (21.40) and Pieroni (21.62) in the hunt for the podium as well. Prigoda (21.85), Louis Townsend (21.86), Douglas Erasmus (21.90) and Daniel Hunter (22.03) will also race in the final.
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