| abstract | - Melissa Ingram finished second in the final of the 400m freestyle after winning the 200m backstroke yesterday. The 23 year old from the Swimming New Zealand High Performance Centre at Millennium Institute qualified sixth fastest for the final. She led out strongly in the final and was only edged out in the final 100m by Russia (also known as ) File:Flag of Russia.svg Elena Sokolova who won in 4:03.99. Ingram was second in 4:05.11, a second outside her New Zealand (also known as ) File:Flag of New Zealand.svg record set in the Sydney World Cup two weeks ago. Yesterday Ingram produced a well controlled performance to win the 200m backstroke in 2:04.93, clear of Maria Nikitina of Russia (also known as ) File:Flag of Russia.svg and Tomoya Fukuda from Japan (also known as ) File:Flag of Japan.svg. It was Ingram’s third swim in the series in the 2min 4sec range and the win was only 2/10ths outside her New Zealand short course record. Ingram has scored seven wins and four second placings from 12 finals in the World Cup series to collect further international experience as well as some valuable prize money with NZ$170,000 up for grabs among all swimmers at each World Cup short course meet. She went into the Moscow meet in fourth place overall in the standings with the top three men and women sharing a further $600,000 at the end of the seven-meet series. Ingram, who has consistently scored well over 900 FINA points for all swims, will need a 1000 point effort in one of her remaining swims to move into the top three. She is in action again on Wednesday and Thursday (NZ time) in the penultimate round in Stockholm ahead of the finale in Berlin next weekend. Today’s result, FINA World Cup, Round 5 Moscow: Women’s 400m freestyle: Elena Sokoliva (RUS) 4:03.99, 1; Melissa Ingram (NZL) 4:05.11, 2; Kira Volodina (RUS) 4:07.53, 3.
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