Will Morozov keep the domination at the FINA Swimming World Cup in Beijing?

The FINA Swimming World Cup in Beijing to introduces the host swimmers as potential danger for the favorites Morozov and Hosszu. 

Many are familiar with the meetings of the athletic Diamond League but not many know the fact that a similar competition, and as equally attractive as that, is organized in the swimming pools around the world. Yes, form the season 1979 FINA organizes the so called FINA Swimming World Cup which nowadays comprises of a series of short course swimming meetings all around the globe from the period between August and November. As online sportsbooks in Australia note, last year the format was changed and the competitions were held in long course pools but this year FINA returned the old format and the 25m pools.

• Katinka Hosszu dominates the World Cup from 2012

• Vladimir Morozov most successful swimmer in the men’s competitions

• Jeanette Ottesen perfect in the short races on the last three meetings

For the year 2016 FINA planned nine meetings within the World Cup. Although the mission is to spread swimming as a sport the series are organized only in Europe and Asia enhancing big cultural and financial centers such as: Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Dubai, Hong Kong that provide perfect environment for FINA’s World’s Cup meetings. Three meetings in 2016 are already behind us and as the series are coming to the middle the culmination of the events is also growing.

Hosszu and Morozov rule this year’s FINA Swimming World Cup series

If there was one swimmer who in the previous three meetings in Paris, Berlin and Moscow showed absolute domination it was certainly the Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu. Nothing new, someone might say, since the Hungarian is the queen of the competition since 2012. After the amazing Olympic performances in Rio she continues in the same style. In Berlin she even succeed to defeat Daryna Zevina in the 200m backstroke category, leaving behind the Ukrainian and Seebom. Needless to say that she dominated the 200 and 400m free and 100m, 200m and 400m IM as well as the 100m backstroke race. Not far from Hosszu in terms of the successes is the Danish, Jeanette Ottesen, who took four victories last time at the Moscow FINA World Cup, winning the races in the 50m (25.02) and 100m fly (55.80), 50m (23.95) and 100m free (51.75).

As internet betting sites in Russia claim, in the men’s competitions Vladimir Morozov proves to be the most successful swimmer so far. In his favorite 50m freestyle, Morozov had a close finish in Moscow, being only 0.07 in front of Chad Le Clos. However he won all the races so far in 50m free and 100 free, clearly indicating his ambitions to be the most successful FINA World Cup swimmer this year.

The Beijing meeting

What to expect from the Beijing meeting? If we like to make some predictions then it is always useful, besides looking at the current season, to see what the tradition has to say about this meeting. Hosszu for instance lost the 200m freestyle race last year in Beijing by the host swimmer, Shen Duo. It was also a turning point in the competition for the Australian Emili Seebohm in the 200m backstroke category. After the win in Beijing she won all the races in this category until the end of the world cup, leaving behind the favorite of the first meetings, the Russian, Daria Ustinova.

Unlike this year we also had a completely different situation in the 100 backstroke for women where Seebohm for instance dominated the whole World Cup. In Beijing she won with a blistering time of 58.59 which was only half-a-second back of her top-ranked time of 58.26 from World Championship. Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu finished then second with 1:00.26 and China’s Chen Jie earned the third place with 1:00.48. This year however Hosszu has already won all three races in this category and whether she will be able to do it again is something that all of you who bet on sports in China can definitely place a wager on.

In the men competition the most successful swimmer last year in Beijing was Cameron van der Burgh, who had a perfect season without defeat in the 50m and 100m breaststroke. The home swimming pool last year proved to be advantageous for Xu Jiayu, Li Zhuhao as well as for Mao Feilian who won the races in 50m backstroke and butterfly and 200m breaststroke respectively. What will be interesting to see in Beijing is whether the Chinese swimmers will be able to again take the top positions from the favorites as they did in the last. At least in the women’s category it is difficult to see someone opposing Hosszu, but in the men’s everything seems to be opened.