Alia Atkinson – Golden splash in Hong kong

Photo: Alia Atkinson

The city of Hong Kong welcomed the third leg (cluster two) of the FINA/MASTBANK, Swimming World Cup 2014 which started on the September 29th and will run until the 30th. Among the tops performers on day one was Jamaica’s Swim Queen Alia Atkinson who gave a masterful performance inside the Victoria Park swimming pool pocketing a gold and a bronze medal.

Atkinson entered the Hong Kong leg of the championships third on the money list having amassed $37.500, after securing $30.000 from cluster bonuses to add to prize monies of $3000 in the first meet of the series in Doha, Qatar and $4500 in Dubai.

She currently sits third in the overall standings 87 points behind two-time World Cup winner Katinka Hosszu (Hungary) with an outstanding 355 points and Dutch-woman Inge Dekker with 126 points.

The 2012 Olympian bagged gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke clocking a fast 1:03.23 seconds, ahead of Japan’s Rie Kaneto (1:06.42s), and Russia’s Tatjana Schoenmaker (1:08.07s).

The Jamaican then returned to clocked 24.65s for the Bronze medal in the women’s 50m freestyle event which was won by Inge Dekker of the Netherlands in 24.02s, and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu claimed the silver medal in 24.65s.

The Commonwealth Games silver medallist however missed out on a medal in the women’s 50m backstroke where she was 4th in 27.37 seconds. Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu won the event in 26.64 seconds.

Her quest for more success continues tomorrow where she will contest the women’s 50m breaststroke along with the women’s 100m individual medley and the women’s 50 m butterfly.