German SC Nationals: Schwarz, A. Köhler, Krüger, Springer set age group records

2019 German International Short Course Championships

• November 14th – 17 th
• Berlin
• Schwimm- und Sprunghalle im Europasportpark, Berlin, Germany
• SCM
• Event page
• Start-lists/results
• Live timing
• Live stream

Eleven events are on the schedule for the last preliminary session: The men’s and women’s 100m IM, 400m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 50m backstroke, 100m butterfly and 4x50m mixed freestyle.

Yesterday’s finals session was highlighted by a World Record in the 1500 m freestyle, set by Sarah Köhler and a Junior World Record in the 800m freestyle, reached by Sven Schwarz.

Today is the last day of the German qalifiying period for the 2019 SC European Championships which will be held from December 4th to 8 th in Glasgow, Scotland. Four swimmers can be nominated per nation for individual events but only two per nation can advance into a semifinal or final.

16-year-old Zoe Vogelmann continued where she left off the night before, with a new age group record. She set the fastest time of all ladies in the preliminaries in 1:00,64 over the 100m IM. Vogelmann improved her personal best by 1,43 seconds. The youngster is at the moment Germany’s most promising IM swimmer, she also won the 200m IM yesterday and has qualified for the European SC Championships. The next fastest ladies for the A-final line up were Franziska Weidner (1:00,81) and Jessica Steiger (1:00,94).

The men’s 100m IM showed a lot of long-time competition experience in the water. And it was 28-year-old Philip Heintz who touched the wall with the fastest time of the morning in 54,19 ahead of 30-year-old Robin Backhaus in 54,46. The 100m IM are not officially on the German event list for the SC European Championships, it is up to the national coaches decision to send swimmers into this race.

German record holder Sarah Köhler didn’t take it easy in the 400m freestyle prelims. She wasn’t far off her German record of 3:59,12 with her prelims time of 4:01,98. Köhler led the field into the A-Final ahead of Isabel Gose (4:06,01) and Julia Hassler (4:07,04). Hassler starts internationally for Liechtenstein but trains in Germany with the SV Nikar Heidelberg. Isabel Gose is the reigning European Junior Champion in the 400m freestyle (LC).

Henning Mühlleitner was clocked with the fastest time of 3:42,89 in prelims ahead of Florian Wellbrock (3:44,89) and Sven Schwarz (3:45,50). 17-year-old Sven Schwarz set a new age group record. He bettered his personal best mark by 1,11 seconds. The German Record is held by Paul Biedermann with a time of 3:32,77, he reached this result in 2009.

Angelina Köhler came in with a new age group record in the women’s 100m butterfly. The 19-year-old checked in with a time of 57,49. Her best time stands at 57,42, she set this time last year. Lisa Höpink celebrates her 21st birthday today and she had her hands at the wall with the second fastest time of 58,34. Only Angelina Köhler stayed clearly under the required norm for the SC Euros which is 58,10.

Marius Kusch confirmed his status as the fastest German butterfly swimmer with his performance of 50.63. He was again below the qualifying time for the European Championships which he reached earlier this month at an ISL meet. Kusch is part of the New York Breakers team. Daniel Pinneker achieved the second fastest prelims time in 52,20  followed by Ramon Klenz in 52,32.

The women’s 200m breaststroke are a youngsters business: All A-finalists are born in 2000 or later except Jessica Steiger (27) and Bente Fischer (22). 17-year-old Malin Grosse led the field into the A-final, she touched the wall with a time of 2:24,94. The qualifiying standard for Glasgow stands at 2:24,05. Kellie Messel made it as the youngest participant into the A-final with a new personal best mark of 2:28,31.  Jessica Steiger dominated the 200m breaststroke event for many years in Germany, her best mark stands at 2:20,84 and she is the German record holder in the LC event. Recently Jessica Steiger has also established herself as one of the fastest German freestyle sprinters and has become an integral part of the freestyle relay teams. This is rather unusual for breaststroke swimmers but Jessica Steiger has managed this transition.

The men in the 200m breaststroke are on the hunt to crack the required nomination time of 2:07,00. Marco Koch, who doesn’t participate today, has already undercut this time und is eligible to participate at the 2019 SC European Championships. Max Pilger set the fastest time in prelims. He led the field into the A-final with a 2:09,62. Pilger must improve his current personal best of 2:08,73 clearly to get under the qualifiying standard. The next fastest swimmers into the A-final were Max Ziemann (2:09,94) and Yannis Merlin Willim (2:10,13).

Laura Riedemann had her hand at the wall with the fastest time of 27,34 in the 50m backstroke. She was followed by Kim Krüger who set a new age group record. The 16-year-old came in with a time of 27,63. 13-year-old Celine Springer also reached an age group best mark wiht her time of 28,05 and she advanced with the 6th fastest time into the A-final. The German record in this event is held by Daniela Samulski, who died of cancer in 2018 at the age of 33.

Ole Braunschweig was clocked with the fastest time of 23,78 in the men’s 50m backstroke heats. Björn Kammann came in with the second fastest time of 24,18 ahead of Jan-Philip Glania (24,21).

The SG Essen set a new German record for swim clubs in the 4x50m mixed freestyle relay in 1:32,39 and grabbed the gold medal.