2007 World Swimming Cup, Singapore: Flash! Natalie Coughlin Breaks 100 Back WR; Randall Bal, Therese Alshammar Also Put On Show

SINGAPORE, October 28. THE second stop of the 2007 FINA World Cup series came to a close in Singapore as all eyes turn to Sydney, Australia for the third stop taking place Nov. 2-3. Singapore, however, had plenty to offer as Natalie Coughlin served up the first world record of the 2007 World Cup. Additionally, Randall Bal and Therese Alshammar turned in several top times of their own to close the curtain on Singapore.

Men's 1500 freestyle
New Zealand's Matt Woodrow began the second night of competition at the World Cup with a win in the men's metric mile when he clocked a time of 15:27.85. Meanwhile, Singapore's Ming Zhe Marcus Cheah finished second in 15:36.45, while teammate Ranier Ng placed third in 16:02.97.

Woodrow's win was never in doubt as he led wire-to-wire. He clocked the only sub-28 first 50 with a 27.89 and never looked back as he touched with splits of 58.25, 2:00.17, 3:02.66, 4:05.23, 5:08.08, 6:09.75, 7:11.82, 8:14.59, 9:16.78, 10:19.53, 11:21.29, 12:23.02, 13:24.81 and 14:26.58.

Woodrow improved upon his previous season-best time of 15:31.08 set at the New Zealand Short Course Championships held in September.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 100 freestyle
Sweden's Therese Alshammar earned the gold medal with a time of 53.67, while Slovakia's Martina Moravcova placed second in 54.32. Australia's Meagen Nay finished third in 55.21.

Alshammar took the early lead with a 25.43 split, before bringing the victory home in 28.24. Moravcova did not take her swim out fast enough with a 26.23, even though she had the fastest back-end of the race with a 28.09.

Alshammar's effort put her into the top five in the early going of this short course meter season. She trails only Libby Lenton (51.83), Inge Dekker (53.38), Ranomi Kromowidjojo (53.47) and Josefin Lillhage (53.53).

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Men's 200 freestyle
The Aussie trio of Kenrick Monk, Grant Brits and Kyle Richardson provided a clean sweep of the hardware with a 1-2-3 effort. Monk touched first in 1:45.54, while Brits placed second in 1:45.68. Richardson rounded out the podium with a 1:47.56.

Brits lead through the 150-meter mark with a time of 1:18.93, before succumbing to Monk's final 50 split of 26.40.

Monk's time came a few seconds shy of his previous season-best effort of 1:43.27 set at the Australian Short Course Championships in August. The same could be said of Brits' time of 1:44.35 set in August. Richardson, meanwhile, finished off the pace of the 1:46.88 set in Durban last weekend.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 50 breaststroke
In the closest race of the evening thus far, Australia's Olivia Halicek touched out Sweden's Joline Hostman, 31.27 to 31.29, in the women's sprint breaststroke event. Singapore's Ru'En Roanne Ho placed third in 33.50.

Halicek finished a bit slower than her previous season-best time of 31.00 set at the Australian Short Course Championships held in August, while Hostman's chase cut her top time this season down from a 32.21 in Durban last weekend.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Men's 100 breaststroke
The breaststroke events provided some more excitement in the men's 100 breast as Russia's Dmitry Komornikov overcame South Africa's William Diering, 1:00.15 to 1:00.18, to stage a comeback victory. Singapore's Jin Leonard Tan finished third in 1:03.80.

Komornikov trailed Diering at the halfway mark, 28.40 to 28.53, but used a final split of 31.62 to take out Diering's 31.78.

Komornikov put himself among the top 10 in the world this year, with Brenton Rickard's 58.75 at the Australian Short Course Championships standing head and shoulders above the rest. Diering nearly matched his own previous season best of 1:00.13 set at the South African Short Course Championships earlier this month.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 400 IM
Australia went 1-2 in the women's multi-discipline event as Samantha Hamill topped the field in 4:37.90 and teammate Jennifer Reilly clocked a 4:41.93 for second place. Germany's Nina Schiffer finished third in 4:48.40.

Hamill won with splits of 1:03.48, 2:12.64, 3:32.33, while Reilly took second with splits of 1:04.77, 2:16.08, 3:36.17.

Hamill hit the wall a bit slower than her previous season best of 4:37.76 set at the Australian Short Course Championships in August, while Reilly came up significantly slower than her 4:34.28 set at the same meet.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Men's 100 butterfly
Russia picked up a top-two sweep of its own in the men's 100 fly as Nikolay Skvortsov cruised to victory in 51.47, while compatriot Evgeny Korotyshkin touched second in 52.30. Australia's Adam Pine finished third in 52.50.

Skvortsov took it out strong with a 24.02, before coming home in a time of 27.45. Korotyshkin had to overtake Pine after the 50, as he trailed 24.73 to 24.76.

Skvortsov's performance put him behind only Andrew Lauterstein's time of 50.85 for the race to the top time in the world this year. Korotyshkin's effort also put him in the top five, while Pine finished short of his 51.81 recorded at the Australian Short Course Championships held in August.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 100 backstroke
Natalie Coughlin decided five years was enough for another women's 100 backstroke record as she lowered her previous global standard of 56.71 with a sterling time of 56.51. She had scared her world record at the Durban stop of the World Cup series with a time of 57.21, but put that swim behind her en route to the newest world record on the books. She took out the swim in 27.54, before coming home in 28.97.

For a more complete look at Coughlin's record-setting swim, please click here.

Australia's Sophie Edington placed second in 59.37, while teammate Tayliah Zimmer took third in 1:01.03.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Men's 50 backstroke
Randall Bal of the United States is starting to make sub-24 routine in his game as he won the sprint backstroke event in 23.94. While still off his winning effort of 23.79 set in Durban last weekend as his season best, the performance demonstrates his continual march up the ladder in the event.

Australia's Ashley Delaney wound up finishing second in 24.35, while teammate Robert Hurley took third in 24.38.

Delaney clipped .01 seconds from his previous season-best time of 24.36 set at the Australian Short Course Championships in August, while Hurley finished off his 24.04 posted at the same meet.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 200 butterfly
In a close battle, Japan's Yurie Yano upended Australia's Samantha Hamill, 2:08.26 to 2:08.37. Meanwhile, Germany's Nina Schiffer took third in 2:13.63.

Although Yano led from the get-go with splits of 28.67, 1:01.04 and 1:34.51, she had to hold off a hard-charging Hamill, who closed her race with a final split of 33.37 against Yano's 33.75.

The pair of 2:08s are among the top 10 times in the world in the early season, but Hamill's time fell short of her season-best performance of 2:07.01 set at the Australian Short Course Championships in August.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Men's 200 IM
As the races remained exciting, Australia's Mitchell Bacon wound up touching out Brazil's Lucas Salatta, 1:59.40 to 1:59.54, in the men's shorter distance multi-discipline event. New Zealand's John Gatfield rounded out the top three in 2:03.78.

Bacon used a superior breaststroke leg (34.82 to 36.61) to overtake Salatta as the Brazilian owned faster splits than Bacon in each of the other three stroke. Bacon split the first-place race 26.35, 55.81, 1:30.63; while Salatta clocked splits of 25.23, 54.20, 1:30.81.

The 1:59s posted by Bacon and Salatta are in the top 10 in the world so far this year. Leith Brodie, however, owns the quickest time with a 1:54.66 set at the Australian Short Course Championships in August.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 400 freestyle
South Africa's Melissa Corfe surfaced triumphant from the middle-distance affair with a time of 4:09.61. Australia's Meagen Nay (4:10.39) and Lara Davenport (4:10.63), however, completed the top three with second and third place, respectively.

Corfe went out quick and never looked back as she led the entire race. She recorded splits of 59.38, 2:02.55 and 3:06.55 along the way to her victory.

Corfe's performance, however, did not eclipse her season-best time of 4:08.26 set in Durban last week.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Men's 50 freestyle
While Natalie Coughlin's big swims may have upstaged him a bit, South Africa's Roland Schoeman has proven to be a routine winner early on in the World Cup circuit. The men's 50 free in Singapore was no different, as he hit the wall in 21.61 for the win. Australia's Grant Brits (22.15) and Kyle Richardson (22.20) comprised the rest of the podium with silver and bronze efforts.

Schoeman completed the men's splash-and-dash just .01 seconds off his season-best effort of 21.60 set in Durban last weekend.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 200 breaststroke
Sweden's Joline Hostman captured the crown in 2:25.42, while Australia's Jennifer Reilly placed second in 2:32.63 and Sri Lanka's Mayumi Raheem finished third in 2:37.48.

Hostman led throughout the race as she marked splits of 33.30, 1:10.11, 1:47.08 en route to her win.

Hostman used the event to her advantage as she chopped two seconds from her previous season-best readout of 2:27.50 set in Durban last weekend.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 100 IM
Just minutes after setting the world record in the 100 back, Natalie Coughlin gave it a go again in the women's 100 IM, an event she holds the global standard in with a 58.80. She came up just short of a daily double world-record bounty, but still wound up with a scintillating 59.12 for first-place cash.

Coughlin's effort became the first sub-1:00 performance of the year and only the second of all time, as she previously had clocked a 1:00.59 in Durban last weekend. Coughlin now owns three of the top five times ever in the event.

Slovakia's Martina Moravcova placed second in 1:02.06, while Australia's Olivia Halicek took third in 1:02.17.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Men's 200 backstroke
Typically a card-carrying 50 back specialist, Randall Bal swept the 50-100-200 distances in Singapore with a win in his toughest event. He clocked a time of 1:52.88, while Australia's Ashley Delaney (1:54.38) and Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin (1:54.46) claimed second and third, respectively.

Bal registered splits of 26.34, 54.79 and 1:23.63 on the way to a season-best time, dipping under the 1:53.15 he turned in during the Durban World Cup stop.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

Women's 50 butterfly
With Natalie Coughlin overshadowing pretty much everyone, Sweden's Therese Alshammar kept doing her own thing, this time with a win in the sprint fly when she touched in 25.69. The performance scared the world record of compatriot Anna-Karin Kammerling, who clocked in at 25.33 in 2005.

The time was Alshammar's second 25.6 in just a week as she had recorded a 25.64 during the Durban stage of the World Cup circuit.

Singapore's Li Tao, meanwhile, gave the hometown crowd something to cheer about on the way to closing the event with a silver-winning 26.45, while Australia's Sophie Edington grabbed bronze in 27.10.

Click here to view events results PDF file.

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