2016 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Monday, May 16th – Sunday, May 22nd
- Prelims: 10:00 AM (London Time) / 5:00 AM (Eastern Time)
- Finals: 6:00 PM (London Time) / 1:00 PM (Eastern Time)
- London Aquatics Center, London, UK
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- Live Stream
In the final women’s race of tonight’s session at the 2016 European Championships, the wickedly-fast women from the Netherlands crushed the competition in the 400m freestyle relay.
The squad members of Maud Van der Meer, Femke Heemskerk, Marrit Steenbergen and Ranomi Kromowidjojo combined to clock a monster time of 3:33.80 to beat the competition by just under 4 solid seconds in London. Their time tonight was just .13 of a second shy of their outing at last year’s World Championships, a mark which earned the same squad, albeit in a different sequence, the silver medal in Kazan.
Splits and orders between the two relays are below:
Netherlands Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay at European Championships:
Van der Meer – 54.68
Heemskerk – 52.80
Steenbergen – 53.82
Kromowidjojo – 52.50
3:33.80
Netherlands Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay at World Championships:
Kromowidjojo – 53.30
Van der Meer – 54.50
Steenbergen – 53.88
Heemskerk – 51.99
3:33.67
Scary to the rest of the world is the fact that key team member Kromowidjojo tells the media post-race that “swimmers are not in the best shape here in London”, as everyone whose made their nation’s Olympic roster is eyeing Rio as their primary target. However, she does say that “it’s good to swim against the toughest and fastest girls in Europe” to give the Dutch confidence heading into the Olympics.
As originally reported by Loretta Race:
WOMEN’S 400 FREESTYLE RELAY – FINAL
- Netherlands, 3:33.80
- Italy, 3:37.68
- Sweden, 3:37.84
The Netherlands completely dominated the women’s 400 freestyle relay, highlighted by two eye-popping sub-53-second splits by the big guns. Femke Heemskerk unleashed a 52.80 split on the 2nd leg, followed by Ranomi Kromowidjojo‘s anchor of 52.50. They were the only 2 to notch times in the 52-zone of the entire field.
Sarah Sjostrom fired off an opening split of 53.48 to help give Sweden the edge it needed to land on the 3rd tier of the podium for bronze.