First podium for Hunter at Hong Kong World Cup

New Zealand swimmer Daniel Hunter has earned his first podium at the FINA/airweave World Cup series in Hong Kong.

The Howick Pakuranga swimmer finished second in the 100m freestyle final, pipped for the win by Japan’s Shinri Shioura in a touch finish. Hunter clocked 47.30s which broke his own New Zealand record of 47.52 set at the national championships earlier in the month.

He had earlier qualified fastest in the heats in 48.47.

Hunter went on to finish seventh in the final of the 50m freestyle in 21.73s, just outside his national record, in the final won by triple world short course gold medallist, Valdmir Morozoc (RUS).

It has proved an excellent series of meets for Hunter, after the Asian swim in Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong. He now heads to Florida to train with US-based Howick Pakuranga swimmer Corey Main as the pair prepare for the short course world championships in Canada in five weeks.

In other swims, Rio Olympian Emma Robinson finished fourth in the final of the 400m freestyle in 4:13.02, 8th in the 800m freestyle in 8:36.28 and 13^th in the 200m freestyle in 2:03.43. All three events were won by the remarkable Katinka Hosszu who also won the 200m medley.

The Hungarian Olympic champion won a record 10 events in Hong Kong and again claimed the overall World Cup title.

Bobbi Gichard (Howick Pakuranga) finished 12^th in the 50m backstroke in 29.10s and 13^th in the 200m backstroke heats in 2:13.15.

The Hong Kong event was the final in the nine-meet FINA/airweave World Cup series ahead of the world championships (25m).