Josh Prenot competes in the men's 400-meter individual medley final at the 2016 FINA Swimming World Cup at OCBC Aquatic Centre on Oct. 21, 2016 in Singapore.
Kelsi Worrell continued her winning ways in Asia by taking her second gold medal in the women’s 100-meter butterfly in as many world cup meets as U.S. swimmers claimed 15 medals in Hong Kong at the final stop of the 2016 FINA Swimming World Cup circuit.
Worrell was one of the few swimmers able to bump three-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu off the top step of the podium in Hong Kong. The Hungarian won 10 events and was second in two more during the two-day competition. But the 100 fly belonged to Worrell. The 2016 Olympian won with a time of 55.49 seconds, 0.71 ahead of Hosszu and 0.35 faster than her winning time in Tokyo earlier in the week. Worrell also won a bronze medal in the women’s 100-meter freestyle, posting a result of 53.01 seconds that was 0.25 behind Hosszu’s 52.76. Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen won with a 52.46.
Although she had the only gold, Worrell was not the only American woman to bring home more than one individual medal. Breeja Larson, Sierra Schmidt and Molly Hannis each claimed a silver and bronze during the competition.
The most impressive U.S. showing was in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke, where American swimmers covered second through fifth place. Larson led the U.S. surge with a time of 2:17.99, 1.5 seconds behind winner Yulia Efimova of Russia. Hannis followed Larson to win the bronze with a 2:21.85, while Zoe Bartel and Brooke Forde were fourth and fifth with times of 2:24.87 and 2:25.54, respectively.
Hannis, who made her first Olympic team by placing second at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, picked up her second medal in the women’s 50-meter breaststroke. She edged Efimova to take the silver in 29.75 seconds, 0.02 ahead of the Russian and 0.55 seconds behind Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson.
Larson, a gold medalist in the 4x100-meter medley at the London 2012 Olympic Games, won the bronze medal in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke in 1:04.15, 1.47 seconds off the pace set by Atkinson and 0.51 behind Efimova.
Schmidt scored a pair of medals in the distance events, taking silver in the women’s 400-meter free and bronze at 800 meters. The gold medalist in the 800-meter at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, she logged a 4:06.76 over 400 meters trailed Hosszu’s 4:05.31 by 1.45 seconds, while her 800 time of 8:23.19 was 2.10 back of Hosszu and only 0.65 behind China’s Dong Jie.
Forde picked up her second world cup medal of the week in the women’s 400-meter individual medley, upgrading her bronze won in Tokyo to a silver in Hong Kong. A high school senior who has committed to Stanford University, Forde swam a 4:29.66, an improvement of 1.74 seconds from her prior best. Hosszu won with a 4:28.50.
Josh Prenot was the most prolific medalist for the U.S. in Hong Kong. After winning the bronze medal in the men’s 200-meter individual medley in Tokyo earlier in the week, he stepped up to take silver in Hong Kong with a time of 1:53.65, 0.56 seconds behind Japan’s Daiya Seto, who touched in 1:53.09. Prenot, the Olympic silver medalist in the 200 IM this summer, also won a pair of bronze medals. He turned in a time of 2:05.45 in the 200-meter breaststroke, 3.14 seconds behind Germany’s Marco Koch and 1.04 seconds away from Ippei Watanabe, who took silver in 2:04.41. Prenot also won bronze in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:06.23 as Japan’s Seto collected the gold in 4:04.11 and Hungarian Peter Bernek took silver with a 4:05.79.
Andrew Abruzzo, a high school junior who attends Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, won a bronze medal in the men’s 1,500-meter free, covering the distance in 15:04.42. Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk took the gold medal in 14:18.53, while Gergely Gyurta, a two-time Olympian for Hungary, claimed silver in 14:43.61.
Team USA earned silver to Russia in both mixed relays. Worrell and Prenot joined Michael Andrew and Anya Goeders in both the 4x50-meter mixed medley and 4x50-meter freestyle, with times of 1:42.48 and 1:33.66, respectively.
