Additional International Swimming League (ISL) roster announcements were made this week, with Dutch sprinter Kim Busch joining Team Iron and British breaststroker Imogen Clark joining Team Energy Standard.
20-year-old Busch will be a valuable relay member for Team Iron, having a resume full of successful performances in that role. The freestyle and fly specialist collected silver at the 2016 Short Course World Championships as a member of the Dutch women’s 4x50m freestyle relay and 4x50m mixed freestyle relay.
More recently in Hangzhou at last year’s edition of the same elite international event, Busch took home 4 relay silver medals, including the women’s 4x50m free and 4x100m free relay 2nd place finishes, along with the same result in the mixed free and medley relays.
Busch was recently named to Netherlands’ World Championships roster for Gwangju.
As for Clark, the 19-year-old Derbyshire native won silver at the 2018 European Championships in the women’s 50m breaststroke, setting a new National Record in the semi-finals en route to the podium.
Later last year, the Loughborough star broke through in the short course arena, nailing the nation’s fastest-ever 50 SCM breaststroke time of 29.43 while competing at the Swim England Winter Championships.
Clark’s accomplishments are even more appreciated in light of the fact she suffers from epilepsy. Diagnosed at age 14 with photosensitive epilepsy, the condition has even caused her to be resuscitated poolside in the past. (BBC)
Clark recently withdrew from the 50m breaststroke event at the British Swimming Championships just last week due to a back injury. She wound up competing in the 100m breast, but wound up finishing 6th in 1:08.34.
Flash forward to today however, and Clark persevered to valiantly throw down a winning 50m breaststroke effort of 30.71 to take gold at the first meet of the inaugural FINA Champions Series to help get her back on track.
A little bit of a shame that Clark had that injury. Could have been a great part of the women’s medley relay and could have medaled in the 50 breast individually at worlds.