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The women's 200 freestyle saw the current world
record-holder and Olympic gold medallist Claudia Poll of Costa Rica edge
out China's Luna Wang (by 2/100 of a second) to win the event in 1:58.44.
She followed that performance with a second win, just as tight, in the 800
freestyle (8:33.32). Having not swum the event in two years, Poll was delighted
with her performance and graciously signed autographs for spectators as
she left the pool deck.
Matthew Dunn, AUS, took two of the three I.M. events. The only double winner in the men's competition
was sprint fly and freestyle sensation Michael Klim of Australia. Taking
a "no fear" approach, he competed in two categories, the men's
Sprint Freestyle and the Butterfly. Promising to be back in Malmö,
Glasgow, and Gelsenkirchen, he was immediately on top of the point scores.
He won both the 100 freestyle (48.58) and the 50 butterfly (24.13). "I'm
very excited to be here because it's the first year that I'm really in contention
to win a category," he said. "Tonight was good although I'm still
a bit tired from the travel. I think tomorrow should be even better."
Other Aussie winners were Matthew Dunn in the 400 individual medley (4:08.93),
and backstroker Adrian Radley was the only swimmer to win all three events
in his categoryonly two of which counted for the points.
Of note on the German squad: world record-holder
and past World Cup winner Mark Warnecke easily won his specialty, the 50
breaststroke, in a time of 28.16. Other World Cup veterans Jörg Hoffmann
and Christian Keller won the 400 freestyle (3:43.28) and the 100 individual
medley (55.70), respectively.
China's numerous medal winners were placed well going into the Beijing meet, although a World Cup title would be difficult as none of the swimmers would swim more than three meets in total.