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Day 1 recap

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If Day 1 in Durban was the day of National Records, then Day 2 was the day of World Records.

Therese Alshammar, who was a double winner on Day 1, returned to have an even more spectacular second day of swimming. In the morning prelims, she broke the World Record in the 100m I.M, an event that she was just testing as a potential future event. With the win, Alshammar claimed 20 bonus points in the World Cup series standings. Alshammar elected not to swim the 100m I.M. final in order to focus on the 50m butterfly, which is considered her specialty event. This strategy paid off big-time as she smashed the world record in that event, finishing in a time of 24.75.

Jessica Hardy, who broke an American record in the 100m breaststroke on Day 1, bettered her own World Record in the 50m version with a time of 29.45. This continued an impressive resurgence of her career after Hardy served a one-year pan for taking the banned stimulant Clenbuterol. Hardy also took advantage of Alshammar’s absence in the 100m I.M. final to win that event in 59.93, the only woman to go under one minute in the final. Hardy was followed in the IM by teammate Whitney Myers, who went a 1:00.07.

American Peter Marshall completed the World Record run by lowering the mark in the 50m backstroke. His time of 22.75 lowered the year-old record set by fellow American Randall Bal. Bal is a past standout World Cup participant, and he won the series championship in 2007.

Another unbelievably impressive performance on Day 2 was from Nadja Higl, a Serbain Breaststroker, in the 200m breaststroke. Higl, won the gold medal at the 2009 World Championships in Rome in the long course version of the event. She was again champion of the event in Durban, but simply winning was not the impressive part. Higl also managed to break her own Serbian National record, which she sent just 8 months ago, by 7 seconds, an unheard of feat in swimming. This continues a meteoric rise for Higl since the 2008 Olympics, where Higl finished 33rd in 200m breaststroke. Since that time, Higl has cut over 11 seconds off of her time and become the World’s best in the event.

The home contingent of South African swimmers again had a very successful day. 2008 Series Champion Cameron van der Burgh completed the South African men’s sweep of the breaststroke events by winning the 100m breaststroke in a time of 56.60. Teammate Neil Versfeld came in second in 57.92, and Brazilian Eduardo Fischer finally broke the South African stranglehold on the podium in the breaststroke events by placing third in 58.47.

The South African men also swept the medals in the 1,500m freestyle, with Herman Heerden leading the way in 14:49.17. He was well clear of second place teammate Riaan Schoeman (15:00.07) and third place Michael Meyer (15:05.08).

Darian Townsend won the 200m freestyle in 1:42.75, ahead of German Steffen Deibler (1:43.17) and Swede Dominik Meitchry (1:43.78). He also won the 200m I.M, this time in an exciting dual with Austrian Markus Rogan. Townsend finished in a 1:53.13, and Rogan placed second with a 1:53.69.

South African George Du Rand finished the gold medal haul for the men by winning the 200m backstroke in a time of 1:49.53. Du Rand was on World Record pace through 150m before falling off the mark in the last 50 meters.

The South African women won 2 events on the day. First, in the 400m I.M, Kathryn Meaklim and Jessica Pengelly were locked in a back-and-forth race. Pengelly seemed to have the race in hand after the backstroke leg, but Meaklim made up more than 2 seconds on the breaststroke leg to put the race away in 4:30.53. Pengelly finished second in 4:35.15, and their compatriot Bianca Meyer finished third. The women again swept the podium in the 400m freestyle, with Pengelly getting the win this time. Kayla Ferreira finished second (4:13.93) and Bianca Hauzer finished third (4:16.36).

Other winners on the day were Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands in the women’s 100m freestyle (52.49), Russian Evgeny Korotyshkin in the men’s 100m fly (50.23), Brazilian Fabiola Molina broke the National Record in the women’s 100m backstroke (57.77), Australian Felicity Galvez in the women’s 200m fly (2:05.55), and Sweden’s Stefan Nystrand in the men’s 50m free (21.29).

This finished up Day 2 of the 2009 World Cup’s first stop in Durban, South Africa. Overall in the meet, there were 4 world records broken, and an additional 7 World Cup records broken.

Marshall of the United States leads the men’s side, on the strength of his second place finish in the FINA points standings, plus his 20 point bonus for a world record. Roland Schoeman is in second, on the strength of his win in the 50m breaststroke, which counted for the most FINA points of the meet.

Therese Alshammar of Sweden leads the women’s side, gaining both the most FINA points in the first meet, as well as breaking 2 World Records. American Jessica Hardy is second, with 20 Cup points and 1 World Record. See our World Cup home page for complete Points standings.

The next stop of the tour is November 6th-7th in Moscow, Russia.

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