Chad Le Clos and Marco Koch impress in Men’s events: FINA World Cup – Post Session Analysis
Day one of the 2011 Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) World Cup series experienced the outshining efforts of Chad Le Clos, Marco Koch and Dinko Jukic in the Men’s events on Friday, October 7, in Dubai.
With the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games, the FINA organised World Cup series is of immense importance. The championship is a short course event, which provides an opportunity to world-class players to compete with each other in their respective disciplines.
Stiff competition between players just before world’s biggest stage of sports not only gives a chance to international athletes to improve their shortcomings, but also encourages young talent to compete with the best of the world.
South Africa’s Le Clos, Germany’s Koch and Austria’s Jukic dominated the Men’s events on the opening day. Le Clos won the titles of 400m Individual Medley (IM), 200m butterfly and 100m IM respectively, while Jukic finished second behind him in all respective
events. On the other hand, Koch showed his supremacy over the crowns of 50m and 200m breast-stroke, while the German finished third in 400m IM.
Dubai, being the only stage of World Cup Series in United Arab Emirates (UAE), is of insignificant importance as swimming elites are paying less attention towards it and are more focused to next three stops of the competition, which are in Europe. However,
a healthy amount of top-class athletes have also confirmed their participation in the last three legs of World Cup, which are scheduled in Asian countries.
The absence of 400m IM world record holder, USA’s Ryan Lochte and Brazil’s Thiago Pereira provided a great platform for 19-year-old Le Clos, who proved his mettle in the 400m swim. With the absence of 200m butterfly’s record holder, Kaio Almeida, Le Clos
got another chance to clinch his second gold medal of the session in just a few minutes.
After a while, with the non-participation of Sergey Fesikov, the two-times Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Le Clos again emerged as a tough athlete in the 100m IM, where he dictated terms to his fellow swimmers.
Nevertheless, luck was not limited to Le Clos only, as Koch also took advantage of the absence of world-class breast-stroke swimmers and gathered two gold medals in the session. He took benefit from the refraining action of Neil Versfeld and Cameron Van
Den Burgh, who avoided competing in 50m and 200m breast-stroke meets, respectively.
The abstention of swimming icons in the first stage of the world-class event has allowed talented youth to rule the podium and show their skills in front of the aquatic arena. The international aquatics sport governing body, FINA announced a cash prize of
$1500 for the winner, $1000 for silver medallist and $500 for bronze medallist.
This resulted in heavy pecuniary benefits for swimmers as Le Clos earned $4500 in just one night, while Koch earned $3500 and Jukic received cash prizes of $3000, respectively.
However, the panel of superlative swimmers has confirmed their participation at the second stop of the series in Stockholm, which is scheduled to be held from October 15-16. Australian and Canadian teams have already announced their squads for the next stage,
where le Clos will be confronted by Australian comeback King, Geoff Huegill, in the butterfly events.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: