Finnish, Bulgarian, and Czech Records All Fall in Prelims of Men’s 200 Breast

2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Swimming: Monday, May 17th – Sunday, May 23rd, 2021
• Budapest, Hungary
• Prelims at 10:00 am local/Finals at 6:00 pm local
• Event Site
• Entry List
• Live Results
• Live Stream
• Day 3 Full Prelims Recap

At least 3 National Records were broken in prelims of the men’s 200 breaststroke on Wednesday morning in Budapest, Hungary in the preliminary rounds of the men’s 200 meter breaststroke.

Matti Mattsson cracked the Finnish Record in 2:08.43 to qualify 2nd for the semi-finals, Lyubomir Epitropov broke the Bulgarian Record in 2:10.12 to qualify 10th for the semi-finals, and Matej Zabojnik finished tied-for-18th in prelims in a new Czech Record of 2:12.32, which missed the semi-finals.

Finland

The 2:08.43 by the 27-year old Mattsson, the oldest swimmer in the top 10 finishers in prelims, shaved 08 seconds off his previous best time done in April at the Helsinki Swim Meet. After stagnating in this race for almost 8 years (his previous National Record was a 2:08.94 done in August 2013), Mattsson has now broken the mark twice in six weeks.

As he’s resumed his downward trend in the event, he’s become increasingly more aggressive on the front end of his race, especially the first 50 meters. That aligns with recent drops he’s experienced in the 100 breast (though he didn’t have the same flat-line in that event over the last decade).

Comparative Splits:

Mattsson also cracked the Finnish Record in the 100 breaststroke earlier in the meet, swimming 59.99 in the semi-finals. That knocked half-a-second off his previous lifetime best in the event.

Bulgaria

Epitropov swam a 2:10.12, which likewise broke his own National Record of 2:10.57 done in December at the Bulgarian Team Championships.

Trained in the United States at the University of Tennessee, Epitropov recently swam at April’s Pro Swim Series event in Mission Viejo, California.

He represented Bulgaria at the 2019 World Championships in this event, finishing 25th in 2:11.78, which at the time was almost a two-second drop off his lifetime best. Since then, he made a training change by transferring from East Carolina University to Tennessee, but his drops have continued.

Lyubomir seems to be experimenting with his pacing on this event a little, though a continued focus on front-end speed appears to be the strategy pushing him ahead in the race.

Splits Comparison:

That swim also dips him under the FINA “A” Olympic qualifying time.

Czech Republic

Of the trio, Zabojnik was the only swimmer who didn’t break his own record. Rather, his time of 2:12.32 cleared the April record set by Filip Chrapavy, who swam 2:12.51 at the Swim Open Stockholm.

Chrapavy and Zabojnik are training partners at Kometa Brno.

Zabojnik missed qualifying for the semi-finals by .09 seconds.

Keeping with the trend of the day, Zabojnik got his record with a faster opening 50 and 100 meter split than he’s used to.

Comparative Splits:

This bumps Zabojnik into the lead for the spot on the Czech Olympic Team in the event as well. Both swimmers have a “B” cut, but neither has an “A” cut, which means, for now, only one would be eligible to race in Tokyo. Chrapavy swam in the same heat on Wednesday and was almost a second slower in a time of 2:13.22.