At the beginning of the 2014 World Short Course Championships, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom said (in paraphrase) that her 200 free wasn’t feeling very good, and that she didn’t expect much from it.
As it turns out, she underestimated her own abilities – or at least was hustling the competition. She swam a 1:50.78 in the women’s 200 free to win gold and break the World Record of 1:51.17 done at the 2009 European Championships by Federica Pellegrini. Pellegrini was 5th in this race in 1:54.01.
Sjostrom pulled off a rare feat and out-split Pellegrini’s last 50. In 2009, Pellegrini was closing at an almost unparalleled pace across many races, but Sjostrom’s last 50 of 27.74 was better than the 28.08 that Pellegrini finished with in 2009.
The visual in this race was Hosszu, who was well inside of the World Record for the entire race, just getting passed with about 20 meters to go on this race. Sjostrom’s stroke as she closed seemed to get quicker, more efficient, lower to the water, and from the profile view, as compared to Hosszu’s stroke, it was clear where Sjostrom was making the difference.
Hosszu very nearly got the World Record herself with a 1:51.18 – just missing by .01 seconds.
The comparative splits:
Pellegrini ’09: 26.58/28.26/28/25/28.08 = 1:58.17
Hosszu ’14: 26.05/28.28/28.49/28.37 = 1:51.18
Sjostrom ’14: 26.29/28.37/28.38/27.74 = 1:50.78
This is Sjostrom’s 2nd World Record of the night, coming after the 100 fly from earlier in the meet.