Dubai: Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu clinched her fourth consecutive Fina/Airweave Swimming World Cup title in the final round of the eight stage series in Dubai at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Saturday.
South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh won the men’s equivalent to secure his third crown after earlier victories in 2008 and 2009. Both Hosszu and Van der Burgh were awarded $100,000 (Dh367,000)in prize money.
Hosszu also claimed an additional $50,000 as the best female swimmer over legs six to eight, an honour Australia’s Mitch Larkin achieved in the men’s division. Larkin also won male Swimmer of the Meet along with fellow Australian Emily Seebohm in the women’s category.
This year’s series was held over a 50-metre distance for the first time, as the events doubled-up as qualification for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“I’m really excited I won the World Cup again,” said Hosszu. “I’m really happy with how I did this year, I’ve made a lot of progress in my long course swimming and that’s definitely really exciting. It gives me a lot of confidence for next year also. My times got faster throughout the eight stops, I should be tired but for all of my events I swam the fastest here,” she added.
Hosszu won the 200-metre freestyle, 200-metre and 400-metre individual medleys for a hat-trick in Dubai but came second to Australia’s Melanie Wright in 100-metre freestyle, Seebohm in the 100-metre backstroke and New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle in the 400-metre freestyle.
Wright also won the 50-metre freestyle and Boyle secured the 1500-metre freestyle for both swimmers to clinch doubles. Seebohm meanwhile, also won the 50-metre and 200-metre backstroke for a treble. Jamaica’s Ali Atkinson won the 50-metre and 100-metre breaststroke double and America’s Felicia Lee did similar in the 50-metre and 100-metre butterfly. Elsewhere, Turkey’s Viktoriya Gunes won the 200-metre breaststroke and Hungary’s Zsuzsana Jakabos won the 200-metre butterfly.
In the men’s events Van der Burgh won the 50-metre and 100-metre breaststroke. Larkin won the 100-metre and 200-metre backstroke double. Britain’s James Guy swept up in the 200-metre and 400-metre freesytle, as did South Africa’s Chad le Clos in the 50-metre and 100-metre butterfly.
Elsewhere, Brazil’s Bruno Fratus won the 50-metre freestyle, France’s Jeremy Stravius took the 100-metre freestyle and Czech Republic’s Jan Micka secured the 1500-metre freestyle. America’s David Plummer won the 50-metre backstroke, Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta won the 200-metre breaststroke, and Denmark’s Viktor Bromer clinched the 200-metre butterfly. Japan’s Keita Sunama and Hungary’s David Verrastzo then won respective 200-metre and 400-metre individual medleys.
Six clean sweeps were secured in all, with Hosszu winning all eight stops of the 200-metre and 400-metre individual medleys, Van der Burgh did the same in the 50-metre and 100-metre breaststroke, and Seebohm and Verraszto similarly dominated the 100-metre backstroke and 400-metre individual medley events respectively.
