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The 2018 FINA World Cup continued in the Netherlands this week for the third stop in this season’s tour. The first two days of the Eindhoven stop featured a world record from Vlad Morozov and an American record for Kathleen Baker, with both swimmers back in the water for the last day of competition in the Netherlands.
Sarah Sjostrom kicked things off in the 100 fly, just finishing ahead of Kelsi Dahlia to take the top seed 56.90 to 56.93. Also in the final with be Ranomi Kromowidjojo who qualified third. Nicholas Santos qualified firs in the men’s 50 fly (22.6), beating out veterans Chad le Clos (22.92) and Morozov (23.02) along with Michael Andrew (23.03), who has been a force in this World Cup as well.
The women’s 200 backstroke is set up to be a thrilling race tonight, with the same top three as last night’s 100 back moving forward to the final. World record holder Katinka Hosszu, who was third in last night’s 100 back, was the fastest qualifier from the morning in 2:05.70, followed closely by Emily Seebohm (2:06.19) and Baker (2:06.38).
Mitchell Larkin and Ryosuke Irie will have a similar match up in the men’s 100 back, as both were the only two qualifiers under 52 seconds (51.12 to 51.92).
Molly Hannis beat out world record holder Alia Atkinson for the top seed in the women’s 50 breast, 29.76 to 29.94, while last night’s 100 breast champ Yulia Efimova is right behind in third (30.06). Anton Chupkov, who dominated the 200 breast in the long course stops to start to the World Cup, will look to do the same thing in short course tonight after posting a smooth 2:04.00 this morning.
Sjostrom was back in the pool for the women’s 100 free and was beat out to the wall by Dutch veteran Femke Heemskerk. Heemskerk qualified first in 51.73, while Sjostrom was second in 52.40 and Kromowidjojo was third in 53.07. Hosszu was then back to grab another top seed in the 200 IM (2:07.24) ahead of Heemskerk (2:08.12), who pulled off an impressive double. Also in the 200 IM final will be American Melanie Margalis (2:08.61) and Efimova (2:09.95).
Other top seeds included Kyle Stolk in the men’s 200 free (1:43.97) ahead of Blake Pieroni (1:44.68).
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