Hosszu seals World Cup swim title

SINGAPORE (AFP) –

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary competes during the women’s 200m butterfly final meet of the FINA short-course swimming World Cup in Tokyo on November 7. Hosszu secured the overall women’s title in short-course swimming’s World Cup with two more gold medals in the final leg of the series in Singapore on Sunday.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu secured the overall women’s title in short-course swimming’s World Cup with two more gold medals in the final leg of the series in Singapore on Sunday.

Hosszu underlined her dominance in this year’s series when she claimed wins in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley. It marked the seventh time that she had won each event in the eight legs of the international circuit.

The two wins increased her gold medal tally in this year’s series to 39 but she missed out on a 40th when she finished third in the 100m individual medley behind her compatriot Zsuzsanna Jakabos and Australia’s Ngawati Kotuku.

Hosszu picked up a total of seven medals in Singapore — four gold, one silver and two bronze — and ended the season with 186 points, 57 ahead of runner-up Jakabos.

“It was a lot easier to motivate myself with so many good swimmers to race with,” said Hosszu, who collected a US$100,000 cash bonus as the top earner in the series.

“I just tried to win every race I took part in. I planned to swim in many events for this series, and it’s really good training with these fantastic swimmers.”

Germany’s Britta Steffen, who completed a clean sweep of the 100m freestyle events with her eighth consecutive win of the season, was third on 97 points.

The men’s overall title went to Australia’s Kenneth To, who had sealed his victory by winning the 100m individual medley on Saturday before claiming silver in the 100m butterfly on Sunday.

“This is my first time doing the entire series, and it’s been an amazing experience,” said the 20-year-old, who finished with 195 points, 38 ahead of runner-up George Bovill of Trinidad and Tobago.

“It taught me how to back up race after race, and how to perform whenever it’s needed. Picking up the wins along the way helped boost my confidence, knowing that I can perform in any situation thrown at me.”

Like Steffen, Russian Stanislav Donets claimed third place in the men’s ranking after completing a clean sweep in the 50m backstroke in the World Cup.

Another notable performer in the men’s competition was Japan’s Yuki Shirai who scored his sixth consecutive win in the 200m backstroke.

On the women’s side, Rachel Goh of Australia and Rie Kaneto of Japan claimed their sixth wins in the 100m backstroke and 200m breaststroke, respectively, while American Jessica Hardy recorded her fourth win in the 50m breaststroke.