Gosh. A whole world cup session without a world record. Still, plenty of shiny suit speed and close races at the last meet of the 2009 series in Singapore. The tour comes to a close tomorrow.
The first-day finals started with an 8:17.21 win for Blair Evans (AUS) in the 800m free. Her teammate Matthew Abood set a world cup record of 45.46 for a far-out victory in the 100m free, while things were much closer in the third final, the women's 200m free. In a close tussle, Petra Grandlund (SWE) got the touch in 1:54.76, 0.04sec ahead of Inge Dekker (NED), with Fran Halsall (GBR) just 0,04sec further adrift.
Roland "The Blade" Schoeman (RSA) continues to help to make his teammate Cameron Van Der Burgh a fiercer fighting animal. In the 50m breaststroke, Van Der Burgh could not match his world-record pace and paid the prize with a 25.76 that fell shy of Schoeman's 25.58.
Leisel Jones (AUS) donned a shiny suit beyond her sponsorship in Berlin to clock a world record of 1:03.00 in the 100m breaststroke last weekend. In Singapore a distant 1:04.30 granted her bronze, though the other speediest of breaststrokers on the series, Jessica Hardy (USA), also found herself back from the top spot: the touch went to Jones's national teammate Sarah Katsoulis, in 1:03.73, to the American's 1:03.87.
Oussama Mellouli (TUN) took his first win of the day in the 400m medley, on 4:05.79, Felicity Galvez (AUS) claimed the 100m 'fly in 56.07, with Halsall also under 57, on 56.91, and Jess Schipper (AUS) well back from her teammate, on 57.55.
Guilherme Guido (BRA) won the 100m back in 49.63, Emily Seebohm got the better of her Aussie teammate Marieke Guehrer by 0,02sec in the 50m back, her winning time 25.55, and Kazuya Kaneda (JPN) kept the Aussies from celebrating another win with a 1:51.54 touch over Nick D'Arcy's 1:51.9 in the 200m 'fly. Mellouli raced to a 3:39.18 win in his second final, the 400m free, the challenge coming from Robert Hurley, on 3:39.42.
The closest call on the bull run came from Therese Alshammar, seasoned tourer and a sprinter who had proved herself long before the shiny suits poisoned the pool. The Swedish champ whacked out a world cup mark of 23.27 to fall 0.02sec shy of Dutch sprinter Marleen Veldhuis's world 50m free record.
Christian Springer (AUS) claimed the 200m breaststroke in 2:02.65, a stroke down on his shiny suit world mark, with Neil Versfeld (RSA) second on 2:02.68. His teammate, Darian Townsend, second in the 100m free earlier and continuing a multi-swims tour that will stand him in good stead for racing in a time of textile too, won the 100m medley in 52.11. Of course, as Townsend will know, easier to keep coming back for more when you're wearing a prop. The South African set a world record way ahead of Michael Phelps in Berlin but it was a tale of two sports, the two swimmers hardly in the same race, one of those that highlighted the farcical nature of what has unfolded in a sport soon to be revived.
A European record (more than 120 of those this year) fell in 2:01.48 to Elizabeth Simmonds (GBR) in the 200m backstroke, while Nicholas Dos Santos gave Brazil a second win with a 22.16 effort in the 50m 'fly to bring the session to a close.
In the mix, many shiny suit times that will be irrelevant from January 1, 2010.
