Danila Izotov (RUS) shot to the helm of the early short-course season world rankings over 200m freestyle with a 1:42.77 victory at his home round of the arena world cup in Moscow.

Izotov went through in 24.15, 50.27 and 1:16.36, was never led and won with some ease to place himself at the helm of the global pack this northern winter, ahead of the 1:43.93 of Takeshi Matsuda at his home round of the world cup in Tokyo last month.

Among other solid efforts were a 50.99 win in the 100m butterfly for Evgeny Krotyshkin (RUS), a 14:50.66 victory for Pal Joensen (FAR) in the 1,500m free and a 2:23.37 win for Keiko Fukudome (JPN) in the 200m breaststroke, her effort upsetting European champion Anastasia Chaun (RUS), on 2:23.63.

The cup series concludes in Stockholm at the weekend, the men's and women's winners in line for a $100,000 prize each.

In the cup overall, Thiago Pereira (BRA) has an unassailable lead on 138 points to 76 for Darian Townsend and 42 for his South African teammate Roland Schoeman.

Among women, Therese Alshammar (SWE), on 112 heading into a home-town last round in Stockholm, has the edge on the 88 points of Julia Smit (USA), with Hinkelien Schreuder (NED) third on 50.

The series has witnessed no world records, and just one world cup record, the 1:52.42 200m free blast of Femke Heemskerk (NED) in Berlin last weekend. The longest surviving world cup record is the 7.36.24 800m free mark set by Jorg Hoffmann (GER) at Malmo in 1997. That is the only mark that predates 2005, while all but 5 of the world cup records have "shiny 2009" attached to the end of them, such was the folly of FINA at the time.

Others winners in Moscow:

Men:

• 50m freestyle: Roland Schoeman (RSA) 21.50
• 50m backstroke: Stanislav Donets (RUS) 23.75
• 200m backstroke: Arkady Vyatchanin (RUS) 1:51.44
• 100m breaststroke: Stanislav Lakhtyukhov (RUS) 58.92
• 200m medley: Thiago Pereira (BRA) 1:54.26

Women: 

• 100m freestyle: Jeanette Ottesen (DEN) 53.63
• 400m freestyle: Elena Sokolova (RUS) 4:07.44
• 100m backstroke: Daryna Zevina (UKR) 58.92
• 50m breaststroke: Yuliya Efimova (RUS) 30.28
• 50m butterfly: Therese Alshammar (SWE) 25.43
• 200m butterfly: Elain Breeden (USA) 2:06.36
• 100m medley: Hinkelien Schreuder (NED) 1:00.17
• 400m mdley: Julia Smit (USA) 4:31.45

Many thanks to Georges Kiehl, former French international and for many a long year the official compiler of statistics and records for a world cup series that dates back to the days of the Arena Festival in the 1980s before FINA adopted the cup.