Catch up: ISL finals day one, Dressel breaks two world records

Tom Dean followed up his impressive 400m freestyle win in the semi-final with victory in the final, pushing the outstanding Energy Standard swimmer Danas Rapsys into second.

It was an important win for London and just their third of the day.

Shout-out too for team-mate Luke Greenbank whose time of one minute 48.65 seconds is a new British record in the 200m backstroke - an event he finished fourth in.

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As you would expect, Canadian ISL newcomers the Toronto Titans have hoovered up much of their nation's talent for their 2020 debut, but Sydney Pickrem signed with London Roar and she's been a brilliant addition to their line-up.

The 2016 Olympian is the team's co-captain with Adam Peaty this weekend and delivered an inspiring performance by claiming London's second win of the day, this time in the 200m individual medley.

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Adam Peaty has doubled up throughout the season, racing both the 200m and 50m on day one of each match, but with points so crucial here, should he have skipped the longer event?

Peaty's ISL rivals are always close in 50m short-course events and after losing out by just 0.02 seconds to Energy's Ilya Shymanovich you wonder if the 200m had an impact.

His fifth-place finish in the 200 earlier only brought in four points and he missed out on a stack of jackpot points by finishing second in the 50m. It's easy to seem wise after the event, but London Roar could regret that decision.

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The second session saw London Roar miss a couple of chances for wins when Duncan Scott – one of their breakthrough stars this season – could managed only third in the 200m IM and then ASdam Peaty could not quite catch Ilya Shymanovich in the 50m breaststroke.

Alia Atkninson then failed to hold on in the women’s 50m breaststroke – with Cali’s Lilly King scooping jackpot points for the second time in the day.

Energy Standard’s win in the men’s freestyle relay came with Chad le Clos’ fastest time of the ISL season and kept them in touch of the Condors – just 25 points back from the ISL’s only unbeaten team in 2020.

Standings after first session:

1. Cali Condors 184.0 pts
2. Energy Standard 159.0
3. London Roar 130.0
4. LA Current 116.0

Caeleb Dressel sets his second world record OF THE DAY with victory in the 50m freestyle - lowering his previous mark of 20.24secs to 20.16.

That adds to the best-ever time he set in the 100m butterfly earlier and the new record mark in the 100m individual medley last weekend.

He may never match Michael Phelps' Olympic medal haul, but he's arguably the greatest all-round swimmer of all time already and he has no plans to leave the sport any time soon!

"In swimming terms he's godly," says analyst Mark Foster - who held the 50m freestyle world record himself back in 2001, when it was 21.13.

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Russia's Kirill Prigoda secures London Roar their first win of the 2020 grand final with a controlled swim in the 200m breaststroke.

"It was amazing and I tried my best to help my team," says Prigoda.

"It's an important victory and i hope my team will look at me and do the same for the whole two days."

Team-mate Adam Peaty - who set a 100m world record last weekend - was pushing hard to the 150m mark but dropped off and finished fifth. Watch for him in the 50m later today.

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Lilly King is already a world and Olympic champion but her performances in the International Swimming League have arguably brought her even more respect in the sport.

While many star swimmers can dominate one event King, has won all but two of her races over two seasons of the competition and that's over 50m, 100m and 200m distances.

Her latest win - in the 200m breaststroke - secures 15 points for Cali Condors and she's also lowered the US record in the event to two minutes 15.56 seconds.

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London Roar are traditionally slow starters in meetings as the ISL event schedule doesn't favour their best swimmers early in the session, but they should claim victories later.

The difficulty for the UK franchise with this match is that their opponents are stacked with talent and they can't allow them to get too far ahead in the match.

The 2019 runners-up were hit with the loss of a host of world-leading Australians just days before the event due to Covid concerns, so to reach the final is a decent achievement all things considered.

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Cali Condors star Caeleb Dressel beats Energy Standard's Chad le Clos into second and destroys his world record in the process!

The Olympic champion becomes the first person in history to dip under 48 seconds by lowering Le Clos' record which stood at 48.08 with a new mark of 47.78.

It's his second world record of the ISL season after breaking the 100m individual medley mark in the semi-finals last weekend. Look out for him in the 50m freestyle and butterfly over the weekend.

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Three world records tumbled during the semi-final stage with London Roar duo Kira Toussaint (50m backstroke), Adam Peaty (100m breaststroke) producing stunning swims.

Cali Condors' incredible multi-eventer Caeleb Dressel then broke the 100m individual medley mark. He could not only lower that time, but also chase down record times in the freestyle and butterfly events. Watch this space...

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After a season of shocks - with the introduction of new rules and two fresh franchises - the line-up for the 2020 grand final is actually an exact replica of 2019's showdown.

12 months ago, the world was a very different place and Energy Standard powered to a stunning victory in the spectacular Las Vegas setting. London Roar were second ahead of Cali Condors, with LA Current fourth.

The ISL hoped to be "bigger and better" this season, but staging the event at all and making the Budapest bio-bubble 'covid-secure' has been an incredible achievement.

Whoever comes out top this weekend, swimming has been the winner, because without this event the athletes would not have had a major race in 2020. Many feel this block of training and competing will boost their prospects come the delayed Olympics next year.

Last season, Energy Standard's Sarah Sjostrom claimed the Most Valuable Player award after claiming the most points during the season - which brought with it a cool £37,000 reward.

Sjostrom's bid to retain the title was hit after she missed one of the qualification rounds due to a back injury, apparently sustained while trying to put socks on.

Cali Condors' superstar Caeleb Dressel leads with 367.50 points, but LA Current duo Beryl Gastaldello (296) and Ryan Murphy (292.5) could come into contention if the 'skins' selections go in their favour.

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The ISL is planning to trial a longer race distance this weekend in the form of a men’s 800m freestyle race. Eight leading 800m swimmers will take on 32 lengths of the Duna pool, starting at 17:00 GMT – immediately after the Grand Final’s first session ends.

“We are always exploring ideas for thrilling new races and this is a good opportunity,” said ISL chief executive Andrea Di Nino. “We will analyse the outcome and hold discussions with our stakeholders on different formats for the future.” The eight swimmers participating will not score points for any of the four Grand Final teams, despite three of the swimmers – Mikhail Romanchuk, Felix Auboeck and Zane Grothe – participating in this season’s ISL.

The other five swimmers are Hungary’s Akos Kalmár, Damien Joly and David Aubry of France, Henrik Christiansen of Norway and Belgium’s Lander Henrickx. Swimmers will earn points from their placings at three checkpoints (100m, 400m and 800m) and the winner is the one with the highest points score. As usual in the ISL, there are jackpot times for each checkpoint, with the fastest swimmers able to take points off the slowest.

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Former Great Britain swimmer Mark Foster has seen every stroke of this year’s ISL in his role as television analyst, commentator and interviewer and says it is the new names that have come through that have made the ISL 2020 season most interesting for him.

“Take Emre Sakci on the Iron team – he was good, but now he has been great. I’d not heard of him before, so it’s almost like you are getting these new faces, new names, and the next generation.”

According to Foster, that includes swimmers like the London Roar’s Freya Anderson. “She’s my woman to watch in the next year - seeing her go up against the world’s greatest swimmers and beat them on occasion and come close on others – she has been a standout,” he said. Foster was the first on the spot to interview London’s Kira Toussaint and Adam Peaty and Cali’s Caeleb Dressel when world records started to tumble during last weekend’s semi-finals.

“You always want to see the best swimmers on the planet because they’re the stars,” he said. “It is so exciting to see what the human body can do and how it pushes those limits. There’s nothing better to show how good they are than by breaking world records.”

London Roar (15): Freya Anderson, Elliot Clogg, Kathleen Dawson, Tom Dean, Luke Greenbank, James Guy, Holly Hibbott, Anna Hopkin, Emily Large, Scott McLay, Siobhan-Marie O'Connor, Adam Peaty, Duncan Scott, Harriet West, Aimee Willmott.

Energy Standard (5): Imogen Clarke, Georgia Davies, Lucy Hope, Max Litchfield, Ben Proud.

Cali Condors (1): Mark Szaranek.

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What is it?

The International Swimming League was launched in 2019 by billionaire owner Konstantin Grigorishin.

More than 300 of the world’s best swimmers competed last year in a series of head-to-head showdowns in Europe and the United States, culminating in a grand final in Las Vegas.

Organisers planned to expand this year’s ISL, but, due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has been scaled down, with all races to be held in Budapest from 16 October to 22 November.

Olympic champion Adam Peaty is one of 36 Britons involved, while Caeleb Dressel, Sarah Sjostrom, Chad le Clos and Katinka Hosszu are among the other global stars signed up to race.

How does it work?

Unlike traditional events, in which swimmers compete for their nation or themselves, the ISL features 10 franchises, who are each allowed squads of up to 32 - 16 men and 16 women.

They score points for their team through results during a total of 32 individual and five relay events across a two-day match featuring four teams, with extra points available in the 'skins' race-off events.

In those 'skins', eight swimmers go head-to-head in 50m races, which take place every three minutes. Half of the field is eliminated after each of the stages - leading to what is usually a dramatic conclusion to each match.

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Scoring explained

Each match consists of 39 races of various disciplines, including 32 individual races, five team relays and two skins races.

The winner in each race earns nine points for their team, with a sliding scale of points for other placings, from seven points for second place to one point for eighth.

Which franchise is the favourite to win?

With big-hitters such as Sarah Sjostrom, Chad le Clos, Florent Manaudou, Ben Proud and five-time world champion Emily Seebohm, Energy Standard will begin as favourites to retain their crown.

But the introduction of several new rules- including swimmers losing points if they do not achieve set times means it is likely to be a highly unpredictable season.

BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer will have live coverage of the International Swimming League Grand Final on Saturday and Sunday 21-22 November.

Finals day one - Saturday, 21 November 13:00-15:15

The session on Saturday, 21 November will be available live on the BBC's digital platforms, and for 30 days on catch-up.

Finals day two - Sunday, 22 November 17:00-19:15

The session on Sunday, 22 November will be available live on BBC Red Button and the BBC's digital platforms, and for 30 days on catch-up.

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