~ Seven of a possible ten Triple Crowns were claimed on the first night of the last stop of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup 2026 in Astana. Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands was the swimmer of the night as she claimed a $10,000 Triple Crown in the 50m Backstroke, and busted another Triple Crown attempt in the 200m Freestyle, claiming a $2500 bonus in the process.
"VAN" (Sports Desk - 16.10.2026) :: Steenbergen’s 200m Freestyle was a best time at 1:50.23, taking down Siobhan Haughey’s attempt at three wins in three weeks. Steenbergen moved to second all-time while Haughey finished second at 1:50.87, the fastest time for her on the Silk Road Tour.
“Of course, it's always fun to be a crown buster,” Steenbergen said. “I mean, for me, not for her. But I did it because this is my qualification meet for the worlds, and I had to qualify somewhere. So yeah, this was the last stop to do it, so that's why I did the 200m Freestyle here. So not to be the Crown-buster… but of course, it's a fun bonus to have.”
Steenbergen returned later to secure her own Triple Crown in the 50m Backstroke at 25.67. Her European record of 25.47 still stands from last year, but she is leading the overall World Cup standings with two days remaining on this stop. With only three swims counting towards each athletes’ total score, those rankings could shift around drastically by Saturday night.
Blue Ribbon on the Marquee
One of the other notable crowns busted came in the men’s 100m Freestyle, where two of the world’s best sprinters, Egor Kornev and Cameron McEvoy, went head-to-head with the World Record that Kornev tied two weeks ago on watch. It was one of the marquee races on the program and it lived up to it.
McEvoy, age 32, took the lead early by a half second, flipping well under world record pace and the race was over from there. In the event that started it all for him when he won his first World Junior title in 2011, and the event that catapulted his senior career back in 2014, vintage McEvoy was on full display.
“So, I’ve only been training for ten weeks for the 100 Free, and I needed exposure to racing because I haven’t raced short course since 2019,” McEvoy said. “So, back-to-back-to-back weekends, I’ve scraped a lot of data. Each 100, I raced it differently so I could learn where I’m at, what I need to do. So I think I’m now in a really good spot for Beijing coming up.”
McEvoy won on Thursday night at 45.11 as Kornev touched second at 45.23. It was a lifetime best for McEvoy and it put an extra $2500 in his pocket.
“The battles between Egor and I, it’s been pretty spectacular,” McEvoy said.
“The feedback from social media, a lot of people around the world are very invested. I think it’s really good hype for the sport, really good engagement, really good advertisement.
“And from the competitive side too, it’s crazy to have these types of battles consistently. It’s not the last time we’re having good battles here, but we’re going to continue to have really good battles all the way through to LA 2028. Yeah, it’s a special rivalry, and I have a lot of respect for Egor.”
Despite the loss, Kornev still leads the overall World Cup standings with 134.4 points ahead of South Africa’s Pieter Coetze with 134.1.
Coetze impresses again to stay in the hunt
Coetze claimed his own Triple Crown in the 100m Backstroke on Thursday with a 48.40, just off his own African record of 48.21. Hubert Kos’s world record of 48.16 will live to fight another day as Coetze had a relatively easy win over Russian Pavel Samusenko (49.29) in second.
“Oh, very happy to get the crown,” Coetze said. “I was kind of hoping for a faster time after getting so close to the World Record last week, but I have to be happy with that outcome. I think coming into the World Cup, if I saw this time, I would be happy, so I have to take it.”
Coetze and Kornev will be expectedly fighting to the finish the rest of the weekend as they have both set world records on this tour; Coetze in the 50m Backstroke and Kornev in the 50m butterfly. If anyone is to take them down, they may need to set another world record themselves.
“I'm keeping my eye on the points and checking how many points I have and stuff,” Coetze said. “It's very different. It makes it exciting… I think it's good for the sport.”
Crowns claimed among women’s chasing pack
China’s Yu Yiting won her third straight 400m Individual Medley (IM) World Cup title with her best time to date on Thursday at 4:22.74. Yu broke the national record, previously held by Ye Shiwen from 2012, and was just 0.01 off of Yui Ohashi’s continental record from 2018.
“I mean, 400 Medley is very hard,” Yu said. “But we swim the three stops, we always have the 400 IM. I don’t think I can swim the best time in the last stop, but this time is good.”
Yu has a chance at the overall crown as she is currently second overall behind Steenbergen. If her Thursday night swim is any indication, she is in her best form of the tour this weekend after a long three weeks of racing on top of seven medals at the Asian Games last month.
Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk, who is third in the points standings, claimed her own Triple Crown and $10,000 bonus with a 24.56 in the 50m butterfly. She lowered her own national record of 24.75 set last week as she moved up to tied for eighth all-time in this event.
“I’m very happy that I could improve over the three weeks,” Vanotterdijk said. “The Butterfly short course is difficult with the turn and the last stroke going into it. But I’m figuring it out. Every week was a bit better. I was still looking with the underwaters, with everything - how many strokes, the stroke counts. But yeah, I’m getting there. It’s feeling better. I’m feeling good, so I’m very happy with this.”
Vanotterdijk’s turn sealed the deal for her, kicking away from the competition as she outswam Arina Surkova (24.99) on the back 25 metres to claim her third win in three weeks.
Ireland’s Mona Mc Sharry was the last Triple Crown winner of the night with a win in the 100m Breaststroke at 1:04.03. After a few Triple Crowns were busted right before her, Mc Sharry was not fazed, swimming her fastest 100m Breast in three weeks to win over Evgeniia Chikunova (1:04.76).
“To be able to be on top three weekends in a row and also get faster is just great and it sets me up well for the short course World Championships,” Mc Sharry said.
“I think I had to keep reminding myself in these competitions that it really is still training. And so I think just kind of getting out of my head of how I'm feeling and just racing and, you know, focusing on that.”
Japan’s So Ogata was one of those crown busters on Thursday night as he had an impeccable last turn to take down China’s Chen Juner on the final 25m. Chen was soaring through the first 150 meters, looking well on his way to three wins in three weeks, but Ogata turned it on on the last turn and ran him down, touching the wall at 1:49.89 to beat Chen’s 1:50.13.
It was a best time for Ogata, who moved to tied 17th all-time.
American Shaine Casas also claimed a win in the 200m IM at 1:51.98, holding off Italian Alberto Razzetti (1:52.16) and fellow American Luke Barr (1:52.37), who is third in the overall standings.
“I got a lot of work to do,” Casas said, who was over two seconds off his best time. “Yeah, so time hasn't been there in any event, but I'm just trying to stay positive and focus on what is going pretty well. I think I'm getting better at that mentality of just keep pushing, pushing, pushing, even when it is tough, but I think swim-wise, my details were okay. Turns were okay. Like, there's some good things that I'm still improving on, even if my end time isn't where I want it to be quite yet.”
Elsewhere, Russian Kirill Prigoda also won the 50m Breaststroke at 25.77 ahead of China’s Qin Haiyang (25.83).
Singapore’s Ching Hwee Gan (15:38.41) and Belgium’s Lucas Henveaux (14:33.14) also claimed Triple Crown prizes in the 1500m Freestyle earlier in the day.
This is the first time the Swimming World Cup has made it to the countries of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and the swimmers have delivered every step of the way.
“I really loved it,” Roos Vanotterdijk said. “The whole tour, all the three weeks, it was amazing. I had so much fun. I had such a good time. Also here in Astana. It’s been just, over the three weeks, everybody’s so friendly, so welcoming. So I’m very happy to be here.”
“It's been amazing,” Pieter Coetze said. “So much fun to spend time with the athletes and the way that it was organised, made it super easy for us to enjoy it. You know, everything was kind of done for us. So, I can't thank World Aquatics enough, it was great.”
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