13 October 2019 News Sports

CALI CONDORS DELIVER AS ENERGY STANDARD TAKE THE LEAD AT ISL NAPLES COMPETITIONS

A much anticipated showdown between Olympic Champion Florent Manaudou and World Champion Caeleb Dressel with a twist at the end which concldudes the first european stop of the International Swimming League.

 

Cali Condors deliver as Energy Standard take the lead at ISL Naples competitions

A much anticipated showdown between Olympic Champion Florent Manaudou and World Champion Caeleb Dressel with a twist at the end  which concludes the first european stop of the International Swimming League (ISL).

NAPLES –

It was the most anticipated event of the night: The Olympic Champion and the World Champion going head-to-head in the 50 freestyle skins, a series of back-to-back races on a knockout basis. There they were: Florent Manaudou for team Energy Standard in lane four, Caeleb Dressel for the Cali Condors in lane five, ready to decide who will win the second match of the International Swimming League (ISL) in Naples.

Dressel sat out of ISL's kick-off meet in Indianapolis last weekend, which saw Manaudou take a clear win in one of the crucial events of the league. Skins are worth triple points and Manaudous win played a big role in team Energy Standard, taking a comfortable 82-point lead on the Cali Condors to the first ISL stop in Europe.

But Cali brought Caeleb Dressel to the fight in Italy. The sprint superstar knows back-to-back racing as much as he loves it, which he has successfully proven with an extraordinary number of 13 gold medals at the last two World Championships. The 23 year old delivered big for his squad, keeping the race for top team as tight as can be throughout the two-day event so that it all came down to the skins races. Even more to the men's clash, as Energy's Sarah Sjöström (25.03 seconds) and teammate Femke Heemskerk (25.16) took one and two in the women's 50 freestyle skins, giving Energy as small a lead as 0.5 points on the Condors.

Both Manaudou and Dressel, who had won the 100 freestyle earlier and also bested Manaudou in the 50 butterfly, had no problems advancing to the final showdown. However, in the end it was Dressel who won the head-to-head in 21.33 seconds with Manaudou coming in a length behind at 23,13.

A clear win for the Condors, but only seconds later the final ranking showed up on the screen, telling the baffled teams that in total, Energy Standard got two points more than the Cali Condors in the men's skins rounds. So it is once again Energy Standard, who takes the win (493 points) ahead of the Cali Condors (490.5), followed by the DC Trident (322), who pushed home team Aqua Centurions (321.5) of saturday's third place by as little as 0.5 points.

Dressel contributing as much as 57.5 points to his squads tally, which made him the top point-scorer of the meet in Naples, followed by Energy Standards Sjöström, who was last weekends MVP at the debut in Indianapolis, with 52 points. “ I would much rather have the team title”, MVP Dressel said. “It defiantly stings. It was so close, that makes it hurt even more. I could have done better, we all could have done better throughout the meet. But this is good, there is room to be better, and we will figure it out.

Next Stop for the ISL is Dallas, where the remaining four ISL teams join the fight, bringing Olympic Champions and world champions like Adam Peaty (London Roar), Katina Hosszu (Team Iron) and Ryan Murphy (LA Current) and Michael Andrew (NY Breakers) to the battle on 19th and 20th of October.

13 October 2019