2018 Eindhoven Cup Day 2: Germans Produce On Dutch Soil

2018 SWIM CUP – EINDHOVEN

• Friday, April 13th – Sunday, April 15th
• Prelims at 9am local (9:30am Friday)/Finals at 6pm local
• Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium
• LCM
• Selection for European Championships (among other meets)
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Start Lists/Live Results
• Day 1 Recap

Yesterday we saw Arno Kamminga fire off a new 200m breaststroke Dutch national record to further solidify his spot on the Dutch European Championships roster. He was back in the water again today, producing another solid effort in the 100m breast. Kamminga clocked 1:00.04 to win the event, dipping below the 1:00.28 needed to race the event in Glasgow.

Austrian 21-year-old Patrick Staber collected a big personal best en route to winning the men’s 400m IM event tonight. Entering tonight’s meet, Staber’s previous career fastest sat at the 4:18.30 clocked just last month at Hungarian Nationals. In the race here in Eindhoven, however, Staber hacked 3 seconds off of that outing with a new PB of 4:15.23.

A pair of Germans finished with silver and bronze behind Staber in the form of Johannes Hintze (4:15.76) and Jacob Heidtmann (4:16.40.) Tonight’s 4th place finisher, Arjan Knipping, clocked 4:18.26, giving the Dutchman minimal breathing room under the 4:18.61 time standard for the European Championships.

Also notching a European Championships qualifying effort was Maaike de Waard, who topped the podium in the women’s 50m backstroke. Her time tonight of 28.05 comfortably clears the 28.45 cut needed to compete in Glasgow later this summer.

A trio of German athletes swept the men’s 200m butterfly, led by Alexander Kunert‘s time of 1:57.42. That ranks among the 22-year-old’s personal list of top 10 performances and wound up being just .08 faster than teammate Ramon Klez in the race. Klez took silver in 1:57.50, while David Thomasberger rounded out the top 3 in a time of 1:58.03.

Just one swimmer got under the 3:50 threshold in the men’s 400m free, represented by Germany’s Henning Muhlleitner. He touched in 3:48.18 for the win, doubling up on his 200m free victory from last night.

Another Austrian topped the podium in the form of Mariene Kahler. Kahler proved fastest in the women’s 400m free, earning the gold in 4:12.13. Behind her was Slovenia’s Anja Kilnar, who earned the runner-up time of 4:12.21.

The men’s 100m freestyle final was on the sluggish side, with just Germany’s Damien Wierling clocking a time under 49 seconds. Wierling won in 48.97, whiel the fastest Dutchman was runner-up Stan Pijnenberg in 49.19. NC State-commit Nyls Korstanje won the B-final in 49.92.

The women’s version featured superstar Ranomi Kromowidjojo. Kromo won the 50m fly last night and was dependable again tonight, clocking time of 53.65, the only time under the 54-second marker.

Teammate Kim Busch was also under the 55.20 European Championships qualifying standard, touching behind Kromo in 54.69.

In para swimming action, yesterday’s newly-minted S10 1500m free world record holder Bas Takken was back in the pool tonight, contesting the S10 400m free race. The Dolfijn-based athlete fired off a quick 4:06.64 to claim 895 points to win the mult-class event to kick-off tonight’s session.

Nabbing a new Dutch national para record in the men’s SB9 100m breaststroke was Duncan van Haaren. Van Haareen reaped a giant 948 points based off of his 1:05.16 effort to take mult-class gold.

Additional Winners on the Day:

• Juliane Reinhold was tonight’s women’s 400m IM winner, taking the gold in 4:46.14.
• Slovenia’s Anja Klinar took the women’s 200m fly in 2:12.74.
• Jessica Steiger of Germany was tonight’s 100m breaststroke victor in 1:07.77, while Vanessa Grimberg registered a runner-up time of 1:08.36.
• Germany’s Christian Diener beat the men’s 50m backstroke field tonight, finishing in 25.31.