SWIMMING: Rising middle distance swimmer Thomas Fraser-Holmes has picked up two gold medals on the opening night of finals at the FINA World Cup in Beijing.

The 22-year-old tested his stamina at the Beijing Water Cube, taking on the both the 400m individual medley and the 400m freestyle and managing to walk away with a win in each event.

In the men’s 400m individual medley Fraser-Holmes outclassed the field, finishing almost three seconds clear of his closest rival, Takeharu Fujimori (4:07.29) from Japan to take the title in a time of 4:04.05.

Third place went to fellow Aussie Travis Mahoney who finished with a time of 4:08.15.

Not long after his win, Fraser-Holmes was back in the water for the men’s 400m freestyle where he out-touched South African Myles Brown (3:39.98) to steal his second gold for the evening in a time of 3:39.86.

Short course specialist Robert Hurley also made his way onto the podium in the event, picking up bronze with his time of 3:42.99.

The versatile Alicia Coutts also picked up multiple medals on the first night of finals in Beijing, picking up a gold and silver respectively, in her pet events, the women’s 100m butterfly and the 200m individual medley.

In the women’s 100m butterfly, Coutts was out fast and couldn’t be caught as she flew home to take the gold with a time of 56.00.

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom put on a strong chase but was forced to settle for silver in 56.17 with Hungary’s superstar Katinka Hosszu third in 57.40.

Hosszu (2:05.34) then came back firing in the women’s 200m individual medley to move her way up into top spot and relegate Coutts to silver.

Coutts stopped the clock at 2:06.23 to secure second place ahead of Sophie Allen (2:06.71) from Great Britain.

Australia’s third gold medal of the night came in the women’s 50m freestyle with world champion Cate Campbell sprinting to victory in a speedy time of 23.65.

Great Britain’s Francesca Halsall (24.04) snuck into second with Bronte Campbell (24.13) a touch behind for bronze.

In the men’s 50m breaststroke South African Roland Schoeman (25.95) stepped up onto the top of the podium, finishing just ahead of Christian Sprenger (26.59) in second and Brazil’s Joao Gomes Junior (26.65) rounding out the top three.

After each picking up a medal in their respective individual events, the quartet of Hurley, Sprenger, Coutts and Cate Campbell combined to take gold in the mixed 4x50m medley relay.

With the world record in the event to their name, the team was going to be hard to beat and eventually hit the wall in an impressive time of 1:38.23 to take the gold ahead of China (1:39.55) and Brazil (1:42.07)

The men’s 100m backstroke then gave Hurley a silver medal to add to his collection, with the backstroker hitting the wall just 0.09 of a second behind gold medal winner Eugene Godsoe (50.15) from the USA in 50.24.

The USA’s Thomas Shields (50.52) completed the podium with Ashley Delaney finishing fourth with a time of 51.43 and teammate Mahoney eighth in 53.58.

World Championship silver medallist Emily Seebohm finished the first night of finals with a silver medal in the women’s 200m backstroke, overtaking Great Britain’s Elizabeth Simmonds (2:04.14) to hit the wall second in 2:03.95 and finish just behind eventual winner Daryna Zevina from Ukraine in 2:01.47.

Seebohm then finished sixth in the final of the women’s 50m backstroke in a time of 27.21, with less than a second separating the entire field, Great Britain’s Simmonds was first in 26.83 with Chinese swimmer

Yuanhui Fu (26.95) second and Zevina (27.07) from Ukraine third. 

In the men’s 100m freestyle Australia’s Tommaso D’Orsogna bagged the bronze medal when he hit the wall in 46.85 to finish behind Russian Vladimir Morozov (45.88) and South African Chad Le Clos (46.60).

D’Orsogna then finished off the night with fifth place in the men’s 50m butterfly in a time of 23.06 with Brazil’s Nicholas Santos (22.13) first, South African Schoeman (22.37) second and Thomas Shields (22.78) from the USA rounding out the top three.

The final night of competition will take place in Beijing tonight with full results and information available at http://www.fina.org

Swimming Australia