Sarah Sjostrom holds off Zhang Yufei in battle of the titans

The second evening action of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup from Berlin, Germany saw four World Cup records drop from some of the best swimmers in the world as they are racing for big payouts across this European tour.

The swim of the day came from Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom in the 50m butterfly with a 25.06 to break the World Cup Record that she set back in 2018. This is Sjostrom’s second win of the meet in the German capital as she had a very tough race with China’s Zhang Yufei, who won the 100m World title earlier this year. Zhang gave her everything she could handle to finish in second at 25.14.

“It felt good,” Sjostrom said. “I didn’t expect it to be that fast.  I am here without my coach, but I have done this enough to know how to prepare. Maybe it helped that I was a bit more focused in my morning routines. I was swimming easy in the warm-up tonight and I did more activation stuff and was a bit more professional before the final.”

China’s Qin Haiyang also won his second race of the meet with a 26.29 in the 50m breaststroke, which is the third fastest time in the world this year, which also tied his gold medal-winning swim from the World Aquatics Championships. Qin still has the fastest time in the world this year by virtue of his 26.20 from the semis of the Worlds. The 26.29 also broke the World Cup Record that he set this morning of 26.30.

“I am tired, but I feel very lucky to have won this race,” Qin said. “I would like to return to the podium and to win all three of the breaststroke races.”

Australia’s Kaylee McKeown swam yet another sub-58 100m backstroke this season with a 57.95 to win the event on Saturday evening in Berlin. McKeown’s time is the 15th fastest time in the world this year as she is making sub-58’s look easy as she looks to back up her backstroke hat trick from the Worlds in July.

McKeown is also the defending Olympic gold medallist in both the 100m and 200m backstroke as she broke the World Cup Record tonight that belonged to fellow Australian Emily Seebohm (58.34) set in 2015.

“There are a lot of people chasing, and I am still chasing Olympic qualification,” McKeown said. “My strategies are between my coach and me. We have to put all of them in the bag." 

“In warm up my legs felt heavy and I wasn't expecting to go 57.9, I thought I would go 58 low. The 200 backstroke will be very interesting since I have another lap on the back of that.”

Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, China also had an impressive win in the 200m freestyle at 1:55.10, the 17th fastest time in the world this year as she is coming off of a historic gold medal from last week’s Asian Games where she was the first swimmer from her country to win a gold at the Asian Games.

Haughey beat a stacked field that included last night’s 400m champ Erika Fairweather (1:56.11) as Haughey beat Katinka Hosszu’s World Cup record of 1:55.41 from 2015.

“My time was OK, I was hoping for a little faster time, but it's the first stop on the World Cup series and I expect to swim faster,” Haughey said. “I just came off the Asian Games and it was really fun and I was really happy with my swims there. I swam a lot of events and I was really pleased with the support that I received.

"I am treating the three World Cup stops like training and I am working on my race strategies.  I like to race a lot and when I race I notice things that I can work on.  By the time we get to Paris, everything should be in place.”

South Africa’s Matthew Sates was the only double winner on the evening with wins in the 200m IM (1:58.01) and 200m butterfly (1:55.87).

Sates was the World Cup overall winner in 2021 in the short course venue but has been unable to match that speed in the long course pool, but his two wins tonight were promising for his chances at some hardware at next year’s Olympics in Paris.

Sates sat out this summer’s World Championships to focus on his training as he looks to be in better shape than he was in 2022."

“Strangely, the 200 fly went better than the 200 IM, which was my first race tonight,” Sates added. “I haven't raced in a while and I guess my body wasn’t fully ready for the 200 IM. I may have eased up a bit. But I felt great for the 200 fly. I knew that I had only one strong 50 in me and I saved it for the finish.

“I missed Worlds in Japan but I trained through the entire summer. I didn’t take any time off. Our South African Olympic Trials are my main focus this year, so everything points to December. After that, I will race in Doha as part of our preparation for the Paris Olympics.”

The Americans had three wins on the evening in Berlin, including the first three events, starting with Worlds silver medalist Katie Grimes in the 400m IM (4:37.20). Grimes is already qualified for the 2024 Olympics by virtue of her bronze at the World Aquatics Championships in the Open Water Swimming 10km, which served as the first bit of qualification for Paris. Grimes, age 17, will be racing in her second Olympics.

“It was a terrible time,” Grimes said. “But it's October and we are in the middle of tough training.  It's kind of an odd time of the year to be swimming your best event. I guess times don't really matter right now but I am not super happy with this.”

Michael Andrew also collected a win in the 50m backstroke at 24.47, which was his fastest time of the year as the swim put him 10th in the world for 2023.

“I had a lot of energy for this race,” Andrew said. “I was prepared to swim hard. I still have another event after this but no tight double. This morning was busy with three events so it was good training and preparation. I think it worked out tonight.”

Charlie Clark also won the 1500m freestyle at 14:59.21, which was right off his 14:57 from the World Aquatics Championships in July. Clark has been the No.2 distance swimmer in the United States for the last two years as he prepares for what would be his first Olympics next year if he is to qualify.

Clark won the race over Germany’s Sven Schwarz, who gave him a push late in front of the Berlin crowd. Schwarz won silver at 15:01.17 as he has been as fast as 14:43 this season.

“That felt pretty good,” Clark said. “I am still learning a little bit and trying to get some experience. I went out faster and pushed it a little bit, sometimes I get lost.  I am very happy with this time.

"I took about 3 weeks off, but I love swimming and I needed to get back in as soon as I could;" added Clark. "I was back in the water with my Ohio State teammates during the last week of August and we put in a bit of work before I left for Berlin.”

Italy’s Thomas Ceccon took the win in the 100m freestyle at 47.97 for his fastest time of the season.

Estonia’s Eneli Jefimova won the 100m breaststroke at 1:06.50 in an upset win over World Champ Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania, who was well off the pace in fifth at 1:07.43.

“I was pleased to have won and I am happy with my time,” Jefimova said. “I was almost the same as my times at World Juniors a month ago.”