Photo: Alia Atkinson (AP)
Alia Atkinson returned to the pool at the sixth meeting of FINA/MASTBANK Swimming World Cup on Friday October 24, 2014—in Beijing, China. The three-time Jamaican Olympian produce a dominant splash on Friday to capture the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:04.11 and picked up 12 points against what can be considered a weak line up of swimmers for her standards. She won the race by more than a second and in the process pocketed $1500 for the win over Australian veteran Sally Hunter, who took 2nd in 1:05.40.While Russia’s Maria Astashkina took 3rd in 1:06.29. Astashkina is the 2014 triple European junior champion in the breaststrokes.
Atkinson came out in nonsense mood following her dominant display on day one to claim another breaststroke win, taking the 50m event. . Atkinson won by almost a full second throwing down a 29.15 to be the only swimmer under the 30 second mark. Second to the wall was Sally Hunter of Australia who clocked in at 30.11 for silver. Behind Hunter was Yun He of China who grabbed the bronze with a 30.60.
She used a big back-half effort to snatch 3rd in 59.05 in the Women’s 100 individual medley.
Atkinson who did not compete in Russia now sits fourth overall in money earnings prize money list with 207 points and $46,500 in prize money earnings. She earned $3,500 in Beijing.
Jamaican Alia Atkinson racked the up the second-highest point totals for the meet with 48 points (207 overall) behind, the unassailable leader Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu who totalled 114 points. Hosszu, who won seven events at the Beijing stop, made more history by surpassing Slovakian Martina Moravcova for the most World Cup event wins of all-time is now on 757 points, marginal lead of 460 over her rivals.
Netherlands’ Inger Deker is in second place on 297, followed by Spain’s Mieria Belmonte Garcia on 213 points.
The next stop in the series will be in Tokyo Japan from October, 28 – 29, 2014,.
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