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November 6th, 2009--
Click here for complete results, including preliminary heats, from Omega Timing.

The number in (parenthesis) indicates swimmer’s position in the World Cup Standings prior to the Moscow meet.

The 2009 FINA World Cup moves to a new city on a new continent this weekend, but the assault on the record books continued. After the first stop in Durban, South Africa saw 4 world records broken, the second stop in Moscow, Russia had 2 more broken on the first day of competition.

Marieke Guehrer of Australia, who currently sits third in the overall World Cup standings, took down the World Record in the 50m backstroke event. This swim really demonstrated Guerhrer’s versatility in the sprint events: her highest scoring swim at the Durban meet was the 50m butterfly. The record-breaking time was 26.17, eclipsing Sanja Jovanovic’s time of 26.23. Two other swimmers in the overall top 10, Fabiola Molina and Hinkelien Schreuder, finished second and third respectively. In one of the more exciting finishes on Day 1, Guehrer also won the women’s 50m freestyle in 23.92; just out-touching Hinkelien Schreuder (4th) who finished in 23.95.

The other WR breaker on the day was Evelyn Verraszto of Hungary in the 200m Individual Medley. Verraszto, who did not compete in the Durban event, will certainly make up a lot of ground in the World Cup standings thanks to the 20 bonus points that accompany a World Record. Her time of 2:06.01 broke Kirsty Coventry’s record of 2:06.13. Coventry was the silver-medalist in the 200m IM at the 2008 Olympic Games. In her other event, Verrazsto finished 2nd in the 200m backstroke.

As usual, the men’s 100 free was one of the most exciting races on the day. The race was won by Russian Sergey Fesikov (6th) in a 45.87 for the home squad’s first win of the day. He was followed closely by Canadian Brent Hayden in a 46.14 and Stefan Nystrand of Sweden in a 46.16.

The South African men continued their dominance of the breaststroke events – they took 8 out of the 9 breaststroke podium spots in Durban – by again sweeping the 50m breaststroke. Cameron van der Burgh (3rd), who was the 2008 World Cup champion, won the event in 25.58. This time set a World Cup Record, which was still fresh after being broken last month in Durban by teammate Roland Schoeman (1st). Schoeman also managed to beat his old mark, but his time of 25.80 was only good enough for second in Moscow. Neil Versfeld (4th), another South African, finished in 3rd.

Although Versfeld won the 200m breaststroke in 2:04.15, first was the only podium spot that the South African men would take in the event, to buck their trend of dominance. Second place went to Ukrainian Igor Borysik finished second in 2:04.86, and Russia’s Grigory Falko finished third in 2:05.49.

American Jessica Hardy (2nd) won women’s 100m breaststroke for the second straight meet, and became only the second woman to swim the race in sub-1:04 when she came in at 1:03.75. This was just barely short of the World Record set by Leisel Jones in 2008 at 1:03.72. None-the-less, Hardy’s time was a World Cup record. Jones, in her first meet back from an illness that kept her out of Durban, finished in third with a still-respectable 1:04.61. Second place went to Rikke Moeller of Denmark, who set a National Record in 1:04.43

Australian Felicity Galvez (5th) took the top spot in the 100m fly. Her time of 55.82 wiped out the World Cup mark that Theresa Alshammar set in Durban. Alshammar (1st) came in second at 56.23 and Jeanette Olsen of Denmark finished third at 57.09. Felicity Galvez received a boost last week when a scoring error was discovered (thanks to the crack research team at SwimCoachTools) that moved her from 6th to 5th in the overall standings.

Hardy’s American teammate Peter Marshall (2nd), who set the World Cup record in the event in Durban, was unable to match that feat in Moscow, but he still managed to get the win in 49.49. Russian teammates Stanislav Donets finished second- in 50.12- and Arkady Vyatchanin (10th) finished third –in 50.39.

Fesikov of Russia (6th) set a World Cup record in the men’s 100m I.M by clocking in at 51.45.

Therese Alshammar, who took a commanding first place in the women’s overall standings after Durban thanks to 2 World Records and 3 event victories, did not win a single race in Day 1 in Moscow.

Other winners from Day 1 were Lotte Friis of Denmark in the women’s 800m freestyle in 8:12.94, Sarah Sjostrom (10th) of Sweden in the women’s 200m free in 1:54.02, David Verraszto of Hungary in the men’s 400 I.M. in 4:03.45, Nikolay Skvortsov of Russia in the men’s 200m fly in 1:51.30, Nikita Lobintsev of Russia in the men’s 400m free in 3:38.40, Daryna Zevina of Ukraine in the men’s 200m backstroke in 2:04.59, and Roland Schoeman (2nd) of South Africa in the men’s 50m fly in 22.32.

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