Franziska Hentke finishes 2015 strong with 2:06,96 in the 200m Fly

At a local swim meet in her home town Magdeburg, Germany’s top swimmer Franziska Hentke again showed her world class on the 200 m butterfly in 2:06,96 (LC). The 26-year old ranks first in the world at the season’s end- both in the long course and short course pool. She swam 2:05,26 minutes in the LC 200 m butterfly event at the German Open in July and 2:03,01 at the 2015 European Short Course Championships in early December where she has won her first big international title. Both times are also German national records. The only drawback in this pre-olympic season has been that she wasn’t able to medal at the 2015 LC World Championships where she finished fourth. After she swam the World best time in the 50 m pool in July, she said in an interview with swimswam that her performances are the result of hard work over the last several years, having shown continuous improvement since 2012, and because of this, increased self-confidence. Franziska added that since she started the work with her current coach Bernd Berkahn she lost 8 kg (17 pounds) and she changed her breathing technique – Henke breathes to the side now. Her training program includes 10 water sessions with about 65 up to 80 km per week. “She is a swimmer who is very motivated and who likes this long sets in practice.“ said Berkahn. Franziska stated after her god medal at the European SC Championships that she never has been in a better condition at this time of the year and she thinks that she is on the right track to Rio 2016.