The first-ever FINA Champions Swim Series kicks off today with the opening series stop in Guangzhou, China. This is the first of three stops in the 2019 series, with two more planned in Budapest and Indianapolis later this year.
The FINA Champions Swim Series format features two sessions of timed finals over two days, with only four swimmers competing in each event. All participating athletes were invited to compete based on their finishes at the Olympic Games, World Championships, and world rankings. In addition to nine Olympic gold medalists on the meet roster, there will also be 16 World Championships gold medalists and 42 Olympic or World Championships medalists competing.
Prize money is awarded for each event, with individual athletes earning up to $10,000, and relay event winners earning up to $16,000.
China had a strong start to the two-day series, winning seven of the opening events with strong performances from Xu Jiayu, Ye Shiwen, and Fu Yuanhai.
Links to the live results for the FINA Champions Swim Series are below, as are results for each event. The meet can also be viewed live on the Olympic Channel.
Women’s 400 Freestyle
Katinka Hosszu opened the FINA Champions Series with a win in the 400 free, earning a close win over China’s Li Bingjie. Swimming an outside lane, Hosszu was either third or fourth through the first half of the race before taking the lead by the 250 and not looking back. She touched first in 4:05.16, good for the #6 time in the world this year. Li was just .05 behind her in 4:05.21, about two seconds off her #3 ranked time in the world (4:03.29).
Third went to Zhang Yuhan (4:07.39), while Wang Jianjiahe, who is the #4 ranked swimmer in the world for 2019 with a 4:03.77, was fourth here in 4:07.57. This is the first of Hosszu’s four events this session.
Men’s 100 Freestyle
Pieter Timmers, the defending silver medalist from the 2016 Rio Olympics, took gold here out of lane 6, touching first in 48.60. Timmers was third at the 50 (23.70), but had the only closing 50 under 25 seconds in the field to rockets past Kliment Kolesnikov and Vlad Morozov. Kolesnikov, who flipped first in 23.30, ended up second here (48.75), followed by Morozov (49.10). Chad le Clos rounded out the field with a 49.25.
Women’s 100 Backstroke
Fu Yuanhui won the women’s 100 back in convincing fashion, putting up the only sub-1:00 time of the field. Fu flipped even with Great Britain’s Georgia Davies at the 50 (29.30), but turned on the jets coming home with the fastest second 50 of the field by nearly a second to touch in 59.60. That moves Fu up in the world rankings from #13 to #8.
Davies finished second in a 1:00.51, followed by Australia’s Emily Seebohm (1:01.99). Katinka Hosszu was back in the pool just minutes after her 400 free win, and was fourth here in 1:02.99.
Men’s 200 Backstroke
China’s Xu Jiayu followed his teammate’s win in the women’s 100 back with a win of his own in the men’s 200, leading the race the entire way to touch first in 1:55.24. Xu led the entire race, and that swim improves upon his second ranked time from this year by 3-tenths, although he is still more than a second back from world leader Evgeny Rylov (1:54.00).
Xu finished exactly one second ahead of Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, who was second here in 1:56.24. That was just off his season best of 1:55.79 that has him third in the world.
Women’s 200 Butterfly
China had their third straight win of the session courtesy of Zhang Yufei, who touched first in the 200 fly in 2:07.36. That is a second faster than her season-best time, and moves her up to #4 in the world for 2019. American Kelsi Dahlia was in the race with Zhang through the 150 meter mark, even taking the lead at the 100 mark, but wasn’t able to hold on the last 50. She finished second here in 2:09.77.
Katinka Hosszu, who was on her third event of the session already, was third here in 2:11.95.
Men’s 50 Butterfly
Nicholas Santos of Brazil touched first in the men’s 50 fly, moving up to #4 in the world with his 23.01. His best time so far this year had been a 23.43 from last week’s Brazil Trophy. American Michael Andrew was second here in 23.27, which improves on his season best and moves him up one spot to tie for #8 in the world rankings with Japan’s Kengo Ida.
Andrii Govorov was just behind Andrew by .01, and moves to #9 in the world rankings, just ahead of Ben Proud (23.34) who also moved into the top-10 in the world with his swim here.
Women’s 200 Freestyle
Sarah Sjostrom made her Champion’s Series debut in the 200 free with a win, touching first here in 1:57.62. That is more than 2 seconds off her #2 time in the world (1:55.29). Sjostrom led the whole race and finished well ahead of the rest of the field, who all had already had races this evening. Both Li Bingjie and Wang Jianjiahe were back in the water after the 400 free, while this was Hosszu’s fourth event of the evening.
Li was second here in 1:59.40, holding off Wang (2:00.93). Hosszu, who was feeling the effects of her busy schedule, was fourth in 2:02.56.
Men’s 50 Breaststroke
Felipe Lima was just off his #2 ranked time in the year here, posting a close win over world leader and teammate Joao Gomes. Lima was 26.68 here, just .02 ahead of Gomes (27.60). Gomes is the world leader with his time from the Brazil Trophy (26.42). Michael Andrew was third in his second race of the night, posting another season best in this event and moving up to #8 in the world (27.07). Fabio Scozzoli was about three-tenths off his season best here to finish fourth in 27.11.
Women’s 100 Breaststroke
Olympic gold medalist Ye Shiwen had a strong opening swim in the 100 breast, touching first here in 1:07.48. The Chinese swimmer was in last at the 50 mark, but was the only swimmer under 36 seconds on the closing 50 to take the win. Ye, who has been known for her strength in the IM events, has been strong in the breaststroke events this season. She is currently ranked #7 in the world in the 200 breast.
The rest of the swimmers were tightly bunched, with American Molly Hannis (1:08.33), China’s Yu Jingyao (1:08.51), and Imogen Clark (1:08.99) all finishing with 1:08’s.
Men’s 200 IM
China’s Wang Shun captured another win for China in the men’s 200 IM, touching first in 1:57.24. Wang led the whole race, and ended about a half second off of his #2 ranked time in the world (1:56.66). He was just ahead of China’s Qin Haiyang (1:57.89), moving him into the top 10 in the world with a #9 ranked time.
Michael Andrew showed the effects of his busy schedule, finishing fourth well behind in 2:04.26 in what was his third event of the session.
Women’s 100 Butterfly
Sarah Sjostrom took her second win of the session in the 100 fly, touching first in 57.16 to finish more than a second ahead of Kelsi Dahlia. That is Dahlia’s second silver medal performance tonight after finishing second earlier in the 200 fly. Sjostrom is already the world leader in the 100 fly with a 56.69. In third was Ranomi Kromowidjojo with a personal best of 58.77.
Men’s 100 Backstroke
Xu Jiayu won his second backstroke event of the evening, finishing as the only swimmer under 53 seconds to grab the win with a 52.98. Xu is the world leader with a 52.27. Second again behind Xu was Ryosuke Irie (53.25), who improved on his season best by .07 to move up to #5 in the world.
Women’s 50 Backstroke
Fu Yuanhui won her second backstroke race of the night with another season best, dropping .01 off her #2 ranked time to finish first in 27.60. Fu’s teammate and world record holder Liu Xiang was second here in 27.85. Davies, who was second in the 100 back, was third in 28.08, while Seebohm was fourth again here in 29.40.
Men’s 200 Butterfly
Japan’s Masato Sakai improved on his season best en route to a win in the 200 fly, finishing first in 1:56.44. That cuts two-tenths off of his #15 ranked time of 1:56.65 and moves him up to #12 in the world for the year. Just behind him was South African and Olympic gold medalist Chad le Clos, who was two seconds off his season best with a 1:58.31. That was just enough to hold off a charging Li Zhuhao of China, who had the fastest closing split of the field (29.97) and was just two-tenths behind le Clos (1:58.51).
Mixed 4×100 Freestyle Relay
The 400 free relay team of Hu Junyi (49.09), Ben Proud (49.30), Ranomi Kromowidjojo (54.52), and Georgia Davies (55.93) took the win in the mixed relay team. Relay teams were chosen at random by FINA prior to the start of the meet. Notably, Cate Campbell recorded a 51.94 split on her mixed relay team, although it wasn’t enough to move them higher than fourth. Pieter Timmers had the fastest male split of the field, hitting a 48.55.
So what ? Very, very mediocre results, as I expected. What is the point of the Event ???
“… there is something that money can’t buy…”(The Beatles).
Top result requires purposeful preparation. Not enough just to call yourself “PROFESSIONALS”.
Nevertheless, swimmers may be (must be!) happy! Money for Nothing!
May be it would be better to double or tripple the money pot at the major events of the season and increase
the number of swimmers to be awarded to 20-24?
This meet just feels like a World Cup meet without prelims. Predictable races and not much intrigue.
I was most impressed by Ye Shiwen’s technique in the 100 breast. Supposedly she cut her best time by two seconds. Kind of scary for a former World record holder in the IM for her weakest stroke to get that much better.