Dominant Hosszu hauls in four golds and two silvers

It was a familiar story at the Doha leg of the FINA World Cup last night. At the Hamad Aquatic Centre, Katinka Hosszu was in action in seven events with the Hungarian ‘Iron Lady’ scooping four gold and two silver medals on the night, in what was certainly a normal routine for the Olympic champion.
Hosszu won three gold medals and one silver at the Rio Olympics in August and is at the peak of her career. But the 27-year-old has always been queen of World Cup series, bagging medals at will. And she continued her dominant performance last night in front of a small crowd.
Hosszu started her medal spree by finishing on top in the 200m freestyle, coming home in 1:53.29 seconds. Australia’s Madeline Groves and Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Jakabos held a tight race for the remaining two spots on the podium. Groves got her hand to the wall first to claim second with a 1:54.46 over Jakabos’ 1:54.67.
She had to settle for silver in the 100 metres butterfly, with Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen clocking a 55.93 to win her first of two gold medals on the night.
In the 50m backstroke, Hosszu and Ukraine’s Daryna Zevina fought a close race, but the Hungarian clocked 26.38 seconds over Zevina’s 26.53.
The 200 individual medley is one of her signature events and Hosszu cruised to victory with a time of 2:05.77, almost two seconds ahead of second-placed Yulia Efimova of Russia.
Hosszu’s second medal of the night came in 200m backstroke, with Zevina this time coming out on top. The Ukrainian’s final time of 2:01.25 was just slightly better than Hosszu’s 2:01.48.
The Hungarian marathon lady rounded off her night with a gold in the 800 freestyle.
There was no fatigue on display as Hosszu touched the wall in 8:27.58, three seconds ahead of China’s Fang Yi, who took home silver.
In between all the medals she won, Hosszu just missed out on a podium finish in 50m freestyle, coming fourth in a race won by Ottesen
The Dane stopped the clock at a 23.84, finishing over half a second ahead of the competition. Australia’s Brittany Elmslie finished second overall with a 24.48, while the USA’s Katie Meili rounded out the podium with a third place finish of 24.63. Hosszu was fourth with a timing of 24.74.
In the men’s, reigning World Cup series champion Chad le Clos had a disappointing night by his standards. The South African took one gold and two silver medals.
Le Clos holds the World Record in the 200m buttefly, but the 24-year-old was pipped to gold by Daiya Seto of Japan.
It was a tight race, with Germany’s Philip Heintz jumping to an early lead turning ahead of both Seto and le Clos at the first 50-metre mark.
But the German was unable to hold off a charging Seto. Heintz held onto second until the 150-metre mark when le Clos moved up to second and began to chase down Seto. The battle of the Olympians concluded with Seto clocking a 1:49.84 to finish ahead of le Clos’ 1:49.93.
Le Clos, however, redeemed himself by winning the 50m butterfly with a 22.36 finish. Great Britain’s Benjamin Proud and Japan’s Takeshi Kawamoto rounded out the podium with times of 22.57 and 22.62 respectively.
In the 100m freestyle, Vladimir Morozov picked first of his two gold of the night. The Russian posted a time of 45.77 seconds to claim his sixth consecutive gold in the event for the World Cup 2016 series. Le Clos came second with a 46.00, while Japan’s Katsumi Nakamura finished third with a 46.83.Morozov later also won in 200m individual medley.