The third and final cluster of the 2017 FINA World Cup kicked off Friday in Beijing — the first of three meets contested throughout Asia to determine who will walk away with the $150,000 USD male and female winner’s checks. 

2017 FINA World Cup — Cluster No. 3

Nov. 10-11: Beijing

Nov. 14-15: Tokyo

Nov. 18-19: Singapore

Chad Le Clos opened day one at the Water Cube with dominating wins in the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly. 

Out in a speedy 48.90 in the 200 with Australia’s Cam McEvoy and China’s Xinjie Ji hot on his heels, Le Clos kicked on to his fastest-ever World Cup time of 1:41.81. 

Men’s 200m Freestyle

1. 1:41.81 – Chad Le Clos
2. 1:42.49 – Xinjie Ji
3. 1:43.68 – Matthew Stanley

In his pet event — 100m butterfly — the world-record holder won by exactly two full seconds to blow away the opposition. USA’s Tom Shields, who is notably sick, struggled to finish the race. 

Men’s 100m Butterfly

1. 49.18 – Chad Le Clos 
2. 51.18 – Yauhen Tsurkin
3. 51.52 – Jiayu Xu

Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu was also a double winner on the first night in Beijing, getting a narrow victory over Australia’s Emily Seebohm in the 100m backstroke, before defending her territory in the 100m IM in a tight battle with Sarah Sjostrom. Turning 0.2 behind Sjostrom at the 50m mark, Hosszu made her move with a great technical back-to-breast turn and pullout, before holding off Sjostrom over the freestyle length by 0.2 of a second.

Women’s 100m Backstroke

1. 56.34 – Katinka Hosszu
2. 56.55 – Emily Seebohm
3. 57.99 – Sayaka Akase 

Women’s 100m IM

1. 57.50 – Katinka Hosszu
2. 57.78 – Sarah Sjostrom
3. 58.86 – Emily Seebohm

The women’s 50m freestyle lived up to expectations with the star-studded field blasting 23 points to start the cluster. Sjostrom used her quick speed off the blocks to negate the great underwater dolphin kicking seen by Dutch flyer Ranomi Kromowidjojo to steal the finish in 23.40. Both women have been faster this tour, with Kromowidjojo holding the current world record at 22.93

Women’s 50m Freestyle

1. 23.40 – Sarah Sjostrom
2. 23.47 – Ranomi Kromowidjojo
3. 23.67 – Cate Campbell

Japanese star Daiya Seto, who has been on the road lately after recently competing at the Australian Short Course Nationals, laid down some solid work breaking the World Cup record in the 400m IM. His 3:58.20 broke the previous record of Australia’s Thomas Fraser Holmes from 2014. His splits of 53.7/1:00.0/1:06.8/57.6 are remarkable stuff. 

Men’s 400m IM

1. 3:58.20 – Daiya Seto (World Cup Record)
2. 4:04.31 – David Verasszto
3. 4:10.74 – Gergely Gyurta

Chinese heroes Jiayu Xu, Yufei Zhang and Jianjiahe Wang got hard-earned wins in front of a vocal home crowd on Friday night. The world champion Xu narrowly took the men’s 50m backstroke ahead of short course world medalists Pavel Sankovich and Junya Koga. 

Men’s 50m Backstroke

1. 23.09 – Jiayu Xu
2. 23.11 – Pavel Sankovich
3. 23.34 – Junya Koga

Wang broke through for a junior world record over 400m Freestyle, beating out her highly touted teammate Bingjie Li. 

Women’s 400m Freestyle

1. 3:59.69 – Jianjiahe Wang (Junior World Record)
2. 4:01.75 – Bingjie Li
3. 4:03.07 – Boglarka Kapas

Other results from the night included:

Women’s 200m Butterfly

1. 2:05.02 – Yufei Zhang
2. 2:06.30 – Franziska Hentke
3. 2:08.75 – Christina Licciardi

Men’s 200m Breaststroke

1. 2:03.43 – Yasuhiro Koseki 
2. 2:04.08 – Kirill Progoda
3. 2:04.18 – Haiyang Qin

Women’s 50m Breaststroke

1. 29.57 – Alia Atkinson
2. 30.40 – Junyang Feng
3. 30.44 – Ran Suo

FINA High Point Scorers (After Night One)

Men

1. 966 – Daiya Seto (400m IM)
2. 934 – Chad Le Clos (100m Fly)
3. 929 – Yasuhiro Koseki (200m Breast)

Women

1. 979 – Sarah Sjostrom (50m Free)
2. 970 – Ranomi Kromowidjojo (50m Free)
3. 957 – Katinka Hosszu (100m IM)