2020 CORONA RACE: NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM
- Friday, July 10th
- Antwerp, Belgium
- 50m (LCM)
- *Hand-timed*
The Corona Race competition between the Netherlands and Belgium took place today in Antwerp, giving athletes a chance to spread their aquatic wings after having been training amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Unique to this match-up was the fact that there was no electronic timing, with swimmer’s outcomes validated via hand-controlled stopwatches only. With that in mind, several performances were eye-catching by themselves, but especially in light of the fact that swimmers have only been back in the water for handfuls of weeks.
24-year-old Arno Kamminga, for instance, crushed a monster sub-59 second 100m breaststroke to kick things off. Touching in a big-time 58.46, the European Short Course Champion split 27.4/30.9 to get the job done and fire off a world-class effort tonight.
Kamminga owns a personal best time of 58.43, a mark he established in March of this year, also in Antwerp at the Diamond Race. As such, although hand-timed, Kamminga was very near his own fastest time ever. He has only been under 59 seconds on 6 occasions. Most recently at another unofficial time trial, Kamminga put up a strong 59.24 in May.
Coming back to this Antwerp dual with Belgium, Kamminga followed up with a scorching 2:08.02 200m breast, comprised of splits of 1:02.22/1:05.8. Although unofficial, the mark represents the 4th fastest time of the Dutch man’s career. He owns a lifetime best mark and Dutch national record of 2:07.18 from the aforementioned Diamond Race.
As far as his experience getting back in the groove, Kamminga told SwimSwam, “I really loved racing in another pool with other teams again!” Swimming went better than expected and I surprised myself with 2 amazing swims, also my first 200 since March was really strong.
“It was just so much fun being on the road again for swimming.”
You can view Kamminga’s unofficial 58.46 time trial 2:08.02 time trial videos below. Look for a follow-up post with additional results.
Should be favourite for at least silver behind Peaty.
What a swim – that looked so smooth
Geez, it’s nice to be commenting on actual swimming for a change.
Didn’t know where to post this but:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgWc0zyYOs
This shows underwater footage of Rio 2016 – not only does Miller have a history of taking dolphin kicks off turns, you can clearly see he dolphin kicks off each stroke. I really hope this has been fixed since!!
If you dolphin kick like that dangle in his kick you’re in for a bad time.. underwater at least
That’s a yikes from me
Probably would have medaled this summer. Hope he can keep it up.
Casually watching someone swim a time that would have won every olympics except rio
Didn’t even realize that that’s insane
also would’ve tied for silver at worlds last year
58.4 with a long finish. He’s going 57 low the next time he swims a big meet. #hupholland
I could see 57.6-57.9 range, I think the 57 low could be a stretch but not impossible
Agree with this assessment. Expect to see him sub 58, but not sub 57.5.
Important to remember that the WC’s or OG’s aren’t necessarily the easiest meets to swim fast at. 3 rounds to get through, more pressure-packed etc.
rightfull remark there …..that comes into play at Big meets of course .