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PR 87 - SWC 2013: Four WR highlight successful rendezvous in Tokyo (JPN)

Lausanne (SUI), November 10, 2013 – The seventh leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2013, on November 9-10 in Tokyo (JPN) was highly successful, producing four new World Records and three World Cup records. Individually, Yulia Efimova, from Russia, set a world mark in the women’s 50m breaststroke, while Australia was outstanding in the mixed relays. At the end of the two-day rendezvous, both Katinka Hosszu (HUN) and Chad Le Clos (RSA) reinforced their lead of the third cluster and of the overall ranking of the competition.

On Day 1, Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta established a new World Cup record in the men’s 200m breaststroke, getting the gold in 2:01.30. The Magyar swimmer improved his own mark set in August in Berlin (GER), during the second leg of the series, where he had swum the distance in 2:01.37. The second World Cup of the session was obtained by Alicia Coutts, from Australia, in the women’s 100m butterfly – 55.30, better than the 55.46 set in November 2009 by her compatriot Felicity Galvez in Stockholm (SWE).

Australia continued to shine by improving the World Record in the mixed 4x50m medley relay, in a time of 1:37.84, faster than the previous best of 1:38.02 set also by the Australians in Singapore (SIN) on November 5. Moreover, Chad Le Clos had three wins – men’s 50m and 200m butterfly, and 400m IM -, and Katinka Hosszu established the most valuable performance of the day, clocking 2:04.52 in the women’s 200m IM (1001 points).

On Day 2, Yulia Efimova clocked 28.71 in the 50m breaststroke, bettering the previous WR set by Jessica Hardy (USA) in November 2009, in a time of 28.80. The remaining two WR of the competition were established by the mixed 4x50m free relay of Australia, first setting a new best mark of 1:31.13 in the heats and then further improving it on a 1:29.61 effort in the finals.

Kosuke Hagino made the day for the Japanese fans, with a new World Cup record in the men’s 200m IM, touching in 1:51.50, faster than the time recorded (1:51.55) by Darian Townsend (RSA) in November 2009. Almost at the end of the meet, Hosszu and Coutts shared the best performance of the meet, after their joint win in the 100m IM – 57.53, worth 1010 FINA Points. 

The FINA Swimming World Cup will conclude in Beijing (CHN), on November 13-14, 2013.