Sates gets back to winning ways on World Cup circuit

Matthew Sates returned to winning ways on the final third night of the World Cup leg in Toronto on Sunday to hold onto third spot on the series rankings with one gala to come. 

After missing the podium while losing his overall series lead on Saturday, Sates torpedoed the second half of the men’s 400m individual medley to win by more than 2 sec over his nearest rival, Alberto Razzetti of Italy. 

Sates led through the opening butterfly leg but was overhauled by Hungarian Alberto Kos in the second backstroke stanza. However, he powered through on the breaststroke and freestyle laps to win in 4 min 02.65 sec. 

Razzetti touched in 4:05.03 and Kos 4:05.13.

They finished in the same order in Berlin a week earlier, though Sates was slightly quicker on this occasion, by 0.3 sec. 

“It’s definitely fun, changing strategies and nice racing the same people to see how we improve during the meet,” said Sates, who later tied for fourth in the 200m freestyle.

The American trio of Brooks Curry, Trenton Julian and Kieran Smith stormed off early, opening a gap that Sates could not shut down and in the end just 0.14 sec separated the top five swimmers.

Curry won in 1:42.32, with Sates and Danas Rapsys of Lithuania dead-heating on 1:42.46, just one-hundredth of a second off the podium. A week earlier Sates won this race in 1:40.88.

Chad le Clos was pipped into second spot in the 50m butterfly by series leader and sprint king Dylan Carter of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Carter led from start to end to touch in 22.28 with Le Clos, outside the top three at the turn, finishing strongly in 22.45. 

“I’ve been working hard on my speed,” said Le Clos, who had gone 22.21 while finishing second behind Carter in Germany. 

“I’ve been struggling the last few years with that. It’s a great pleasure racing the best in the world,” added the South African, who is gearing up for the world short-course championships in Melbourne in December. 

“I think Dyl’s favourite for the world title at the end of the year so to be just behind him for now is very, very good.”

Carter heads to the third leg in Indianapolis sitting on 114.5 points alongside American Nic Fink. Sates, the top male swimmer of the 2021 series, is on 111 and Le Clos is fourth on 110.2. 

American Shaine Casas, who scored his fourth victory of the weekend in the men’s 100m backstroke in a 48.84 World Cup record to finish as the top men’s competitor in Toronto with 58.5 points, is fifth overall on 107.4.