BUDAPEST, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The Russian team acquired an overwhelming victory on the first day of the FINA champions Swim Series in Budapest on Sunday, as Russian swimmers won four gold medals in 14 individual finals and mixed 4x100m medley relay.
Yuliya Efimova, silver medalist of Rio 2016, took two gold medals in women's 50m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke. Anastasiia Fisikova won the women's 50m backstroke and Evgeny Rylov added a fourth gold for Russia in men's 100m backstroke.
With no time to sleep off the jet lag, Chinese swimmers didn't perform as well as in the Guangzhou leg. Wang Jiahe finished runner-up in the women's 400m freestyle, while Li Bingjie ranked fourth. Xu Jiayu and Wang Shun ranked fourth in the men's 100m backstroke and men's 200m medley respectively.
The host Hungary harvested two golds in the women's 400m freestyle and men's 200m butterfly, while Hungarian veteran Katinka Hosszu conceded the gold medal to Italian Margherita Panziera in the women's 200m backstroke final. Swedish star Sarah Sjoestroem claimed victories in the women's 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly.
In men's events, Danas Rapsys of Lithuania won the 200m freestyle. Swiss Jeremy Desplanches triumphed in the 200m individual medley, Brazilian veteran Nicholas Santos was victorious in 50m butterfly, and Benjamin Proud of Britain won 50m freestyle.
The Budapest leg is the second leg of the inaugural Champions Swim Series launched by FINA in 2019. The invitational event, which gathers Olympic and World Championships medalists, world record holders, and the best in the world rankings, adopts an original competition format including only finals of four swimmers.
