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The World Aquatics Swimming World Cup 2026 concluded on Saturday night after three weeks of racing across Central Asia, with champions Marrit Steenbergen and Pieter Coetze collecting the $100,000 grand prizes as top points-scorers across nine scintillating race days.

Steenbergen is the first Dutch woman to win the award while Coetze becomes the fifth South African man to win, following in the footsteps of Ryk Neethling, Chad Le Clos, Cameron van der Burgh and Matthew Sates.

Steenbergen capped a fine three weeks with a dominant final night in Astana, collecting two Triple Crown wins.

Starting the day as the strong favourite for the title, Steenbergen started with a 50.52 in the 100m Freestyle for her third straight win, taking down her biggest challenger Siobhan Haughey (50.92) from Hong Kong, China.

“I kind of knew that if I had three wins, that they couldn’t catch me anymore, and that was yesterday,” Steenbergen said. “So today I was just mostly focusing on doing good races and hoping to come away with Crowns, and I did that, so that was really good.”

Her second win came in the 100m Backstroke as she dominated across all four 25’s, winning at 55.43 comfortably ahead of Canadian Taylor Ruck (56.69) in second. It was the fourth Triple Crown for Steenbergen this weekend as she also collected overall wins in the 50m Backstroke and 100m Individual Medley (IM).

“So I’m really happy with that. I’m really happy with my racing, and to end with a 55.4 in 100 Back is really good,” Steenbergen said.

Men’s nail-biting finish

The men’s overall race was tougher to call as it came down to the very last race between Coetze and Russian Egor Kornev in the 50m Backstroke. Kornev’s Triple Crown win earlier in the 50m Butterfly at 21.82 meant that whoever came out on top in the final race would become the overall winner and earn the $100,000 top prize.

“I tried not to think about it coming into the race,” Coetze said. “I just did it like any other race. I had some pain in my bicep in the warm-up, so that was stressing me out a little bit. But I tried to just switch my mind off and focus on the race, and got the race done, and that led to winning the World Cup.”

Despite coming in as the world record holder in the 50m Backstroke, Coetze had his hands full in this race. Separated by 0.07 at the turn, Kornev looked poised to steal the race from Coetze at 35 meters, but the South African powered to the finish, touching at 22.36 to clinch the title with 172.9 points across stops in Baku, Tashkent and Astana.

“This one is hard work because it’s three weeks that you keep it consistent and stay focused,” Coetze said on his Swimming World Cup feats.

Kornev ended the race in third at 22.81 behind Russian Pavel Samusenko (22.49) and left Kornev second in the overall standings with 170.7.

Belgium’s Lucas Henveaux rounded out the top three overall in the points standings with 164.1 points thanks to a third straight win in the 800m Freestyle at 7:30.76, breaking his own national record to sit 13th on the all-time list in the event.

“I felt pretty confident in doing it,” Henveaux said. “I had a great 400m and a great 1500m this week. I knew my 800m would be in a decent spot. That’s why I wanted to take out to a lead, so I could control the race. I feel like I did that pretty well. So, you know, I’m happy with the time as well.”

Having started the day atop the overall standings, American Luke Barr finished fourth overall with 161.6 points ahead of Russia’s Kirill Prigoda, who won his third straight 100m Breaststroke final on Saturday at 56.03. Prigoda finished fifth in the points standings at 157.4.

Prigoda was right on world record pace through the first 75 meters as he was just off his season best time from last week at age 30.

Yu eclipses Vanotterdijk in race for second

China’s Yu Yiting finished second overall in the points standings thanks to a last-ditch effort in the 200m IM

Despite falling short of breaking the World Record, which looked possible at the 125-metre mark, Yu broke her own Asian record at 2:02.63 to move up to fourth all-time.

Astana rounds off a long few weeks of racing for Yu, backing up her seven-medal outing at the Asian Games in Japan last month with three 200m IM golds in three weeks at the World Cup.

Now her attention shifts to a home World Short Course Championships in Beijing in December.

With 166.5 points, Yu clinched second overall in the standings, overtaking Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk thanks to that win in the 200m IM.

Vanotterdijk only raced one event on Saturday, after claiming Triple Crowns in the 50m and 100m Butterfly, finishing second to Yu in that race in 2:05.07.

American Anna Peplowski (155.5) and Canadian Taylor Ruck (148.6) rounded out the top five overall standings.

Russian Ilia Borodin was able to spoil Carson Foster’s Triple Crown attempt in the 400m IM as Borodin swam 3:58.95 for a season best for which he collected an additional $2500 for the Crown bust. Foster finished third at 4:00.85 behind Italian Alberto Razzetti (4:00.72).

Singapore’s Ching Hwee Gan also collected a Triple Crown in the 800m Freestyle at 8:13.18 to break her own national record.

Russian newcomer Ralina Giliazova also won the 50m Breaststroke for the second straight week at 29.54 to move up to 25th all-time while Ireland’s Ellen Walshe won the 200m Butterfly at 2:04.05.

China’s He Yubo also won the 200m Freestyle at 1:42.48 for his first win on the Tour after finishing second in Baku.

The final night in Astana marked the conclusion of three weeks of scintillating racing across the historic Silk Road, with World Record performances and dramatic high-stakes racing helping to build excitement for World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Beijing, China from 1-6 December.