The first stop of the second cluster of the 2018 FINA World Cup kicked off this morning in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, with heats of the men’s and women’s 400 free, 100 IM, and 50 free, along with the women’s 50 back, men’s 200 back, women’s 200 fly, men’s 100 fly, women’s 200 breast, and men’s 100 breast. While the first cluster of the World Cup was in long course meters, this cluster starts with short course meters.<\/p>\n
China’s\u00a0Wang Jianjiahe\u00a0<\/strong>will head into the women’s 400 free as the top seed tonight (4:01.61), following closely by World Cup veteran\u00a0Katinka Hosszu\u00a0<\/strong>(4:02.50) and American\u00a0Leah Smith\u00a0<\/strong>(4:02.71). Those three may be able to push each other under the 4:00 mark and close to the world cup record of 3:59.14.<\/p>\n Blake Pieroni\u00a0<\/strong>was the top seed in the men’s 400, touching just ahead of Olympic gold medalist Mack Horton<\/strong>, 3:45.13 to 3:45.54. The field in this event was tight, with\u00a0Hungary’s\u00a0Daniel Dudas\u00a0<\/strong>finishing just behind in 3:45.64 and the next four competitors ending in 3:46.<\/p>\n Hosszu was right back in the water to claim the top seed in the 100 IM over\u00a0Sarah Sjostrom\u00a0<\/strong>(58.30) and newly minted world record holder\u00a0Kathleen Baker\u00a0<\/strong>(58.57). Hosszu was the only swimmer in the field under 58 seconds with a 57.73, just over a second off her world cup and world record.\u00a0Michael Andrew\u00a0<\/strong>(52.17) took the top seed in the men’s event, just ahead of world record holder\u00a0Vlad Morozov\u00a0<\/strong>(52.37).<\/p>\n Kira Toussaint\u00a0<\/strong>took the top seed in the women’s 50 back in 26.19, while Baker was back in the pool to grab the second seed in 26.43. They were followed by\u00a0Emily Seebohm\u00a0<\/strong>in 26.72.\u00a0Ryosuke Irie\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Mitch Larkin\u00a0<\/strong>were neck and neck in the men’s 200 back, 1:53.62 to 1:53.81, setting up what is sure to be a good race tonight. China’s\u00a0Zhang Yufei\u00a0<\/strong>was the top seed in the women’s 200 fly (2:07.46), just ahead of Hosszu in her third swim of the morning.<\/p>\n South African\u00a0Chad le Clos\u00a0<\/strong>was the top seed in the men’s 100 fly (50.58) and was the only swimmer under 51 seconds this morning. Russians\u00a0Vitalina Simonova\u00a0<\/strong>(2:21.30) and\u00a0Yulia Efimova\u00a0<\/strong>(2:22.74) led all swimmers in the 200 breast while Brazil’s Felipe Lima\u00a0<\/strong>was the top seed in the shorter breaststroke with a 57.43. The top 6 swimmers were all under 58 seconds in the men’s 100 breast, which will make for a close race tonight.<\/p>\n Sjostrom ended the session with a top seed in the women’s 50 free (23.62), followed by world record holder\u00a0Ranomi Komowidjojo\u00a0<\/strong>(23.75) and her Dutch teammates\u00a0Femke Heemskerk\u00a0<\/strong>(23.91) and\u00a0Kim Busch\u00a0<\/strong>(23.99). Expect these three to be chasing Sjostrom tonight, who has won the first two 50 free titles of the 2018 World Cup.<\/p>\n In the men’s event, Morovoz was back in the pool to claim his first top seed of the morning with a 21.18, about two-tenths ahead of Pieroni (21.35) and Japan’s\u00a0Kosuke Matsui\u00a0<\/strong>(21.38). Michael Andrew also qualified fifth in the event (21.50) for his third swim of the morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first stop of the second cluster of the 2018 FINA World Cup kicked off this morning in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, with heats of the men’s and women’s 400<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":317657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[67941,31607,25134,25129,25513,25824,32196,142,60424],"class_list":["post-330895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world","tag-2018-fina-swimming-world-cup","tag-blake-pieroni","tag-chad-le-clos","tag-katinka-hosszu","tag-leah-smith","tag-michael-andrew","tag-sarah-sjostrom","tag-swimming","tag-vlad-morzov"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n