Cameron van der Burgh (RSA) confirmed the successful tradition of his country in the recent history of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup, by becoming the new overall winner of this year’s competition in the men’s category. After the seventh and last meet of the series in Berlin (GER), Van der Burgh concluded with a total of 192 points and will take home the US$ 100,000 prize money allocated for the winner of the series.

Peter Marshall (USA), third before Berlin, was the second best performer (40 points) in the German capital, and still got a bonus (20 points) for his WR in the 100m backstroke. He finished then in the second overall position, with 133 points and US$ 50,000 of prize money. Randall Bal (USA), 2007 winner and fifth before the last meet, also benefited from his WR bonus (in the 50m backstroke) and managed to climb to the third overall place, with 129 (prize money of US$ 30,000).

In the women’s ranking, Marieke Gueher (AUS) was also rewarded for her regularity (she attended all the seven meets of the series) and got the first place with 199 points. Before Berlin, she was closely followed by Therese Alshammar (SWE), who needed to be the best performer with a World Record in this last meet to beat Guehrer. In the 50m butterfly, event in which Alshammar had set a new World Record (25.31) in Stockholm, it was the Australian who established a new WR in 24.99 (best women’s performance in Berlin), ending with Alshammar’s hopes for the overall victory (she finished second, with 137 points). The third placed swimmer of the overall classification was South African Katheryn Meaklim, with 78 points.

A total of 12 World Records were established in this edition of the World Cup, the best outcome since the 2001/2002 edition – where a maximum number of 22 WR were set. In the last five editions, the distribution of World Records was as follows: 2002/2003 – 7 WR; 2003/2004 – 4 WR; 2004/2005 – 5 WR; 2005/2006 – 2 WR; 2007 – 5 WR.

Berlin closed the circuit
In the seventh and last meet of the series in Berlin (GER), on November 15-16, Peter Marshall (USA) improved on Day 1 his own World Record in the 100m backstroke, clocking 49.63 – in Stockholm (the previous leg of the circuit) he had established the best world mark in 49.94.

The second day of the last meet of the series (a competition attended by FINA President Mustapha Larfaoui) was highlighted by the World Record of local star Paul Biedermann in the men’s 200m free. The German swimmer clocked 1:40.83 and erased the previous best world mark (1:41.10) obtained by Australian legend Ian Thorpe in 2000 in the same pool.

The 11th World Record of this World Cup was established by the 2007 winner Randall Bal (USA) in the men’s 50m backstroke, in a time of 22.87 (he became the first swimmer to perform under the 23 seconds in this event). The previous WR holder, his compatriot Peter Marshall (23.05 in Stockholm, the previous leg of the circuit) was second in 22.90 (under the former best world mark), while the bronze went to Robert Hurley (AUS, 23.50), who also set a WR in this event at this World Cup (in Sydney, he won in 23.24).

In the women’s 50m butterfly, Guehrer appeared really motivated to be the first of the overall ranking, and finished her brilliant participation in the 2008 World Cup with a new World Record in the event – 24.99, faster than the previous world best mark set by Alshammar in Stockholm (25.31).

Four World Cup records were also set in this last meet of the circuit: in the men’s 100m butterfly, Evgeny Korotyshkin (RUS) was first in 49.74 (faster than the 50.10 established by German Thomas Rupprath in 2002); in the men’s 200m individual medley, Oussama Mellouli (TUN) got his 28th gold (and 35th medal) of the series with a winning time of 1:52.41 (the previous World Cup record was obtained by Thiago Pereira, of Brazil, in 2007, with a time of 1:53.14); in the women’s 400m free, Coralie Balmy (FRA) clocked the second best time ever in the event, touching first in 3:56.24 – Lindsay Benko (USA) was the former owner of this World Cup record (3:59.53) since 2003, while Laure Manaudou, also from France, has set the World Record in 3:56.09 in December 2006; finally, Singaporean star Li Tao in the women’s 100m butterfly clocked 56.28 - the previous best mark of the competition was held by Natalie Coughlin (USA), who swam 56.34 in 2002, in New York.