Two days of World Cup excitement end with Le Clos & Hosszu emerging winners and new national records for Singapore
Chad le Clos of South Africa and Katinka Hosszu of Hungary emerged as the male and female winners of the Singapore leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup after accumulating more medals on Day 2 (Nov 6).
Le Clos made a clean sweep of the three events he signed up for on Day 2, bringing his total medal tally to five gold medals while Hosszu claimed three gold medals and one silver from five events, bringing her total tally to five gold medals and two silver medals.
Best Yet to Come for Le Clos
Le Clos started Day 2 with a win in the 200m Freestyle, an event not typically associated with him. The 21-year-old revealed his ambition to add Freestyle events to his programme for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“Last night was probably the best night I’ve had in short course, while tonight was more about racing against good competitors to see where I’m at. I hope to take part in the freestyle events in 2016 and will train to be the best in that in addition to the butterfly,”
said Le Clos.
Hosszu Happy
Hosszu, who had a packed programme in Singapore, was happy with her medal haul.
“I did manage to break some Hungarian national records, and am very happy about that, especially considering the 11 events I took part in! I’m very happy about leading this leg and I feel great moving on to the others,” said Hosszu.
New National Records
Local swimmers also did the home crowd proud by setting a few national short course records on Day 2. Quah Zheng Wen smashed Danny Yeo’s year-old 200m Freestyle record with his time of 1:46.08 in the heats, earning him a spot in the Final.
Roanne Ho, the holder of the 50m Breaststroke long course record, took the short-course mark as well with her swim of 32.39 sec in the heats. In the men’s 50m Freestyle heats, Russell Ong broke Arren Quek’s mark with his 22.68 sec time, only for Darren Lim to lower it to 22.26 sec in the next heat.
Queen of Singapore Hearts
Singapore’s Butterfly queen, Tao Li, thrilled the spectators with her silver medal swim in the 50m Butterfly. She held her own against a strong field of qualifiers including Hosszu and stormed home in 2nd place (25:57 sec) after Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem.
Said Tao, “Today I’m definitely more mentally prepared. I didn’t have a target time; I just swam my best and took one less breath in order to go faster and get my medal.”
The Singapore Swimming Association (SSA), organiser of the Singapore leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup, announced that they have renewed the hosting rights for a further four years.
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