Top performers of FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup: Doha, Qatar – Part 1
The second stop of the FINA/Arena World Cup Series took place in Doha, Qatar that featured dazzling performances of swimming stars in their respective events. The crowd enjoyed breathtaking performances of all participants while the champions received a
huge round of applause for their undisputed efforts.
The audience was pretty excited to have the honour of witnessing live action of the swimming giants while the participants were also thrilled and eager to claim top spots in their main events.
The top performers of second stage of the World Cup series were Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Daiya Seto of Japan while other prominent performances included astonishing efforts of Sweden’s Therese Alshammar, Australia’s Kenneth To, USA’s Anthony Ervin and
South Africa’s Darian Townsend.
The Hungarian swimmer smothered expectations of her opponents in the two-day event as she captured three gold medals and a bronze finish on the initial day and four titles on second day of the tournament.
Hosszu, who proved her dominance by seizing seven gold medals at the first leg of world cup in Dubai, continued her nerve-wrecking form in the opening event, the 800m freestyle.
With her immaculate efforts in the distance freestyle discipline, Hosszu enjoyed a comfortable lead over her closest opponent and secured her first gold medal of the event by producing a time of 8 minutes and 29.31 seconds.
Her title-claiming effort remained comfortably ahead of Tanja Smid of Slovenia and compatriot Zsuzsanna Jakabos, who finished second and third with timings of 8:30.60 and 8:35.48 minutes, respectively.
The Hungarian veteran stayed considerably slower from Alessia Filippi’s world record of 8 minutes and 04.53 seconds but she was contented to have claimed the title of the 32-lap discipline.
Afterwards, Alshammar became the centre of attention for the audience with her double gold claiming effort. With her unrelenting efforts, the Swedish swimmer occupied gold medals of the Women’s 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle.
At first, she stifled hopes of her challengers in the four-lap butterfly discipline, where she proved her mettle for the title by clocking a time of 57.22 seconds. Her effort was followed by Inge Dekker of Netherlands and Hang Yu Sze of Hong Kong, who clinched
second and third positions with timings of 58.04 and 59.23 seconds.
Subsequently, Alshammar bested her rivals in the 50m freestyle. She experienced strong contest from her toughest competitor, Britta Steffen of Germany, but with her strong determination and elegant finish, she outsmarted her opponent for the title.
With her astounding pace, Alshammar managed to ascend on the podium for the crown by submitting a time of 24.44 seconds.
Her gold winning pace remained marginally ahead of Steffen, who settled on the wall as second position holder with a timing of 24.46 seconds. Similarly, Inge Dekker remained only a stroke slower from Dekker and captured third position with the timing of
24.78 seconds.
“My year was very good until two weeks before the Olympics, I ruptured a disc in my neck so I could not race all the events I wanted. I don’t know what will happen, I’m enjoying myself now. I trained hard this year and it has been disappointing. I’m not
100% fit. I have no big plans for this year. I’m just trying to enjoy swimming again,” said Alshammar after the victories.
In addition, Alshammar’s exhausting efforts were highly appreciated by the crowd.
To be continued in Part 2.
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