Swimming

The inaugural day of the second meet of the 2020 FINA Champions Swim Series in Beijing (CHN) was highlighted by thrilling races and, in the majority of the 15 races on the programme, by faster times than the ones established in the first leg of the competition, in Shenzhen. In fact, the only exceptions to this trend were the women’s 400m free, the men’s 100m breast, the women’s 50m back, and the 4x100m free mixed relay. And, as in Shenzhen, the race of the day was the men’s 200m free, with the duel between Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys and China’s local hero Sun Yang.

After achieving a one-two-three finish on the first day of the FINA Champions Swim Series on January 18, Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED) is happy to come back to Beijing again and start to count the time until the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Kromowidjojo was a member of the winning mixed freestyle relay team, after earning a silver medal in the women’s 100m free and bronze in the 100m butterfly.

Comparing today’s results with the performances in the first leg in Shenzhen on January 14-15, the Dutchwoman swam faster in Beijing in both individual events, 53.52 to 54.15, and 59.17 to 59.99 in 100m butterfly.

Minakov competed in the Champions Series in Guangzhou last April and later he took a silver medal in the 100m fly behind Caleb Dressel (USA) and a bronze medal in medley relay together with Evgeny Rylov, Kirill Prigoda and Vladimir Morozov at the Gwangju Worlds last year.

After winning all their races at the FINA Champions Swim Series’ Beijing leg, the Japanese trio Daiya Seto, Ryosuke Irie and Ippei Watanabe boosted their confidence and look forward to achieving the best results at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Athletes from China and Japan were in great shape in the second and last leg of the 2020 edition of the FINA Champions Swim Series, taking place in Beijing (CHN) on January 18-19. The local stars, as with the first stop of the circuit in Shenzhen (CHN, January 14-15), left the Ying Dong Natatorium venue of the Chinese capital with nine titles, while the hosts of this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo earned five gold medals.