Hungarian targets more landmarks in Dubai and South African Chad Le Clos also visits the UAE.

Hungarian Katinka Hosszu competing in the 200m butterfly preliminary event at the European swimming championships earlier this month in Berlin. Damien Meyer / AFP
Powered by automated translation

DUBAI // Last week, across two days of the opening leg of the Fina Swimming World Cup in Doha, Katinka Hosszu took part in 14 of the 17 events for women and finished on the podium in 10, winning seven gold medals, a silver and two bronze.

The Hungarian, 25, improved on her three world records in Qatar – in the 100-metre, 200m and 400m individual medley events – but it could have been six. She just missed out on the 100m and 200m backstroke, and 200m freestyle world records, and Hosszu is hoping she can sink those marks at the Hamdan Sports Complex over the next two days.

“In the 100m backstroke, I was really close,” said Hosszu, winner of the World Cup overall championship in 2012 and 2013. “I actually broke the European record [55.99 seconds], so I will try to do just a little bit better and hopefully I get it.

“In the 200m freestyle, I was also very close. I was three-tenths away from the world record. And the 200m backstroke as well. So that’s actually three records I didn’t break, but I was really close in Doha. So I will try again and we will see.”

Japan’s Shiho Sakai owns the 100m backstroke short-course world record with a time of 55.23; Hosszu clocked 55.38 in Doha. In the 200m backstroke, she took the gold in 2 minutes 01.60 seconds, while the world record is Melissa Franklin’s 2:00.03.

Hosszu created a new World Cup mark in the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:51.41, just missing Federica Pellegrini’s 2009 world record of 1:51.17.

“Hopefully, I can just jump out faster off the block and I will get those records,” said Hosszu, though she had little time to rest after her efforts in Doha.

The opening round of the seven-leg World Cup was held on August 27 and 28, while the Dubai legs start today, which means only two days between the two meets. Known as the “Iron Lady” of swimming, however, she is not too worried.

“There are three [world records] that I didn’t get and that’s motivation enough,” Hosszu said. “I mean, I am so close and I am in really good shape, so I really want to push these two days and hopefully I can get some more.

“Sometimes they tell me, why do I push so hard, but you never know if you are going to be in a shape like this again, so I just try to push it as hard as I can. I sure hope that the records I came really close to in Doha, I actually can get here. That will be pretty exciting.”

The star attraction on the men’s side, South Africa’s Chad le Clos is also hoping to improve on his 200m butterfly short-course world record in Dubai after topping the podium in three events in Doha.

“It’s always a great honour to be back in Dubai and I am looking forward to racing again in this fantastic facility,” the winner of the 200m butterfly gold at the 2012 London Olympics said. “Hopefully, I can get close to my world record – not like Katinka’s three, but just to get one.”

There will be several other star attractions at the Hamdan Sports Complex during the next two days, including Mireia Belmonte of Spain, Tunisian Oussama Mellouli, Australia’s Thomas Fraser Holmes and Velimir Stjepanovic of Serbia.

Dubai is hosting a leg of the World Cup for the fourth time, and more than 235 swimmers from 38 countries will be action.

arizvi@thenational.ae

Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE