Yu Yiting endured being thumped with all the rest by 13-year-old China teammate Yu Zidi at the Asian Games, dusted herself down and set off on World Cup tour.

Day 1, she became the first Asian woman to dip below 57sec in the 100IM, to leave the continental standard at 56.99. Today, day 3, she added her second 200IM Asian record this year to her tally of new standards, with a 2:02.80 victory in Baku.

Guided by Australian coach and mentor to double Olympic medley champion of 2008 Steph Rice, Michael Bohl, Yu, who clocked 2:06.82 for the long-course Asian mark back in June, led from go to gold in the highest points swim of the day as the first of three rounds of the 'Silk Road' tour came to a close.

The Asian s/c record had stood at 2:03.93 to Olympic 200 and 400IM champion of a home-Games Tokyo 2020ne Yui Ohashi since the 2020 ISL season. Yu Yiting's best had been a 2:03.99 from the World Cup in 2024 in her last season as a teenager.

Closest to Yu was Dutch ace and 100m free World-record holder Marrit Steenbergen, 2:05.09, with Britain's Abbie Wood on 2:05.69:

When Yu Yiting set her Asian long-course mark of 2:06.82, Yu Zidi was on 2:09.33. A 3.23sec drop at the Asian Games granted the swimmer in her first teenage year a whole new status.

A swimming prodigy since her primary school days, Yu is the schoolgirl who raced to three fourth-place finishes at World (senior) titles in Singapore last year aged 12 despite not yet being eligible to hold a World junior record. Somewhat contradictory rules are now under review, Yu also the youngest swimmer ever to win a medal at the World senior showcase, after a 4x200m free heats swim was followed up with bronze for the China A quartet.

Yu Zidi is now back in her training and schooling in evening classes online in Hebei, while Yu Yiting, 21 last month and a former World Junior record holder, is chasing speed and money prizes on Cup tour.

In other finals

Men's 400m Medley - Foster Makes Race Practice Count

After a 3:36 win in the 400m free on day 1, Carson Foster, USA and one of coach Bob Bowman's Team Texas medley masterclass pathfinders, took charge of the long medley from the start and set the pace throughout on his way to a 969-point victory in 3:57.23, a pb inside his 3:57.45 from 2024.

Four more 900-points-plus swims followed him home. Nearest was European champion Ilia Borodin in 3:59.05 (947), the top three completed by Italy's Alberto Razzetti in 4:01.25 (922), and Japan's So Ogata and New Zealand's two-times Commonwealth champion Lewis Clareburt on 4:01.87 and 4:03.02.

Foster's splits:

Men's 50m butterfly

The backstroke dash win, a second-place in the freestyle dash and a matched 44.84 World s/c record in the 100 free under his belt, Egor Kornev added the butterfly dash victory to his first-round bull run with a dominant 21.64 - and 956-points - victory.

Closest to him was Singapore's Teong Tzen Wei, the only other over the 900-point mark, on 22.01.

Men's 100m backstroke - Another African Mark For Coetze

Pieter Coetze, the South African who has been a gathering storm on backstroke for several seasons on his way to a contender for gold at any level, set his latest African record witty a 49.11sec victory on 943 points. Speaking through World Aquatics, he said:

“I'm very happy with that. I just wanted to get the win and it's a good time too, so I'll take it, I got some feedback, I'm going to look at the videos and tweak what I need to tweak, and hopefully I can improve." 

Beyond titles World and Commonwealth, here's the list of prevailing African standards he's set in the past two years

Long Course

• 50m Backstroke: 24.17 (August 2, 2025, at the World Championships in Singapore)
• 100m Backstroke: 51.77 (July 2026 at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow)
• 200m Backstroke: 1:53.36 (August 2, 2025, at the World Championships in Singapore) 

Short Course

• 50m Backstroke: 22.51 (October 2, 2026, at the World Cup in Baku)
• 100m Backstroke: 49.11 (October 3, 2026, at the World Cup in Baku)

He won the 200m backstroke on day 2 in a career high of 1:49.64 - and this is what he has his eye on, for a sweep of all African backstroke records, short and long, by the time the third round of the 2026 Silk Road tour brings the Cup to a close:

• 1:47.08 - George Du Rand (RSA), November 7, 2009, FINA World Cup - then a World record. It's one of the long-standing shiny suit marks still on the books. Here's are the splits Coetze is chasing:
• 25.52; 52.59 (27.07) 1:19.57 (26.98) 1:47.08 (27.51) Du Rand
• 25.11; 52.53 (27.42) 1:21.12 (28.59) 1:49.64 (28.52) Coetze

Ah, yes, the back end of the shiny. A serious challenge for all left to fight the shiny suits 17 years on.

Closest to Coetze today were Pavel Samusenko, 49.24, and Carson Foster's training partner Shaine Casas, practising the part of medley sums in 49.89.

Casas was not doing practising... freestyle the stroke, 200m the distance, purpose more than tangible.

Men's 200m freestyle - Casas in 1:41.50

Men's 200m breaststroke - Barr raises his bar once more

I can't find a short-course metres 200m breaststroke time for Luke Barr, 23, before his 2:05.16 in heats, but what I do know is that he raised the bar once more today in an event of that distance and has now done so in all three measures of pools open to him 50m long-course pool, 25-yard short-course pool, and now 25m short-course pool.

Like Foster and Casas he also trains in Texas - but not with them; at the Ford Aquatics team with coach Coley Stickles.

The Bars Barr has raised in 2026:

• Long-course: he's gone from a best of 2:12.96 to a 2:09.68 of a breakthrough for 5th place at USA nationals in late July.
• Short-course yards: Last month, Barr swam a rare post-grad yards meet at the Texas Ford Aquatics Senior Super League in 1:50.19 - obliterating his previous lifetime best of 1:54.28 from 2023 NCAA Championships.
• Short-course metres: today in the Baku final - 2:01.73, all-time No16, and 0.07sec ahead of Dutch World s/c record holder Caspar Corbeau.

Men's 50m butterfly - Kornev's 2nd Dash Win

The backstroke dash win, a second-place in the freestyle dash and a matched 44.84 World s/c record in the 100 free under his belt, Egor Kornev added the butterfly dash victory to his first-round bull run with a dominant 21.64 - and 956-points - victory.

Closest to him was Singapore's Teong Tzen Wei, the only other over the 900-point mark, on 22.01.

• RESULTS IN FULL

The Cup Race:

With three golds and one silver from Baku, Kornev topped the men’s overall rankings with 59.3 points, followed by Luke Barr (CLB, 57.4) and Coetze (55.6). 

Marrit Steenbergen amassed the same medal collection from Baku, claiming gold in the Women's 100m Freestyle and silver in the 200m Individual Medley to finish as the top-ranked woman with 58.2 points, ahead of Belgium's Roos Vanotterdijk (54.2) and China's Yu Yiting (53.7).