ROTTERDAM QUALIFICATION MEET (NED)
- Thursday, December 3rd – Sunday, December 6th
- Zwemcentrum Rotterdam, Netherlands
- LCM (50m)
- Olympic Qualifier/European Championships Qualifier
- Entries
- SwimSwam Meet Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
- Live Stream
Today already saw two more national records bite the dust at the 2020 Rotterdam Qualification Meet (RQM) taking place in the Netherlands, with one more day of competition left to go.
As a reminder, per the Dutch Olympic selection policy, the first phase of Olympic qualification began with the 2019 World Championships and ends with Rotterdam. Any swimming events without two qualifiers after this weekend would still be up for grabs if anyone could notch a qualifying time at either the 2021 Swim Cup Eindhoven in April or the 2021 European Championships.
We reported how NC State commit Noe Ponti of Switzerland logged a big-time personal best of 1:56.48 in the men’s 200 fly to snag silver behind winner Louis Croenen of Belgium. Croenen got to the wall in a time of 1:56.30 to stand atop the podium, but Ponti was the 19-year-old who hacked over two and a half seconds off of his previous career-quickest entering this meet of 1:58.96. You can read more about Ponti’s swim here.
The other record came in this morning’s heats, courtesy of 19-year-old Tes Schouten. Staking her claim on the women’s 100m breaststroke, Schouten lowered her Dutch national record from 1:06.96 to 1:06.92. You can read about her record-breaking performance that qualified her for the Tokyo Olympic Games here.
Come tonight’s final, however, Schouten slid back to 3rd place in a time of 1:08.70, while Swiss national record holder Lisa Mamie got the job done for gold in 1:07.52. Finishing between the two was Rosey Metz, with the Dutch athlete clocking 1:08.43 for a new lifetime best by a few hundredths.
The men’s 100m breast was lit up by on-fire ace Arno Kamminga of the host nation. Kamminga already made history yesterday by becoming just the 4th man ever to get under 2:07 in the 200m breast event. You can read more about his massive 2:06.85 swim here.
For this 100m breast sprint, Kamminga clocked two sub-59 second outings, hitting a time of 58.78 in the morning before settling into the gold medal position tonight in 58.69. Splitting 27.56/31.13 in the final this evening, the 25-year-old came within .26 of his own Dutch record of 58.43, a time he logged this past March.
Also getting under the minute threshold in tonight’s final was University of Texas student-athlete Caspar Corbeau. Corbeau hit a new lifetime best of 59.56 today to take the silver, splitting 28.08/31.48 in the process. His outing overtakes his previous PB of 1:00.68 clocked at last year’s U.S. Championships.
Unfortunately for Corbeau, as with his 200m breast yesterday, his time today falls outside the KNZB-dictated qualification time needed for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Although Corbeaus’ effort of 59.56 dipped under the FINA ‘A’ cut of 59.93, Corbeau needed at least 59.38 to add his name to the Dutch roster for Tokyo.
Yesterday, his prelims PB of 2:08.57 fell just .05 off the KNZB-dictated minimum time standard of 2:08.52 needed for Tokyo.
Corbeau will still have another opportunity in April, as well as at the 2021 European Championships, should he be officially named to that roster.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo took the women’s 100m free in a time of 54.00 after having clocked a speedier time of 53.59 in the AM. Kromo already qualified for the Olympic Games via her finish at the 2019 FINA World Championships, where she logged a time of 53.43.
The other racer who has qualified in the 100m free already was Femke Heemskerk, the 33-year-old stalwart who saw her 50m free spot snagged on day 1 here in Rotterdam by Valerie Van Roon. You can read more about that situation here.
Heemskerk’s time from last year in Gwangju checked in at 53.05, which no came close to surpassing here in Rotterdam. The next closest swimmer behind Kromo was Marrit Steenbergen, the emerging junior swimmer from the 2015 European Games who took time off in 2018/19 to focus on school.
Steenbergen hit a time of 54.18 in the morning before touching in 54.29 in the final for runner-up. Behind Steenbergen was Kim Busch in 54.48 and Kira Toussaint in 54.65 to put their hats in the ring for relay spots for next year’s Games.
For perspective on the now-20-year-old Steenbergen’s career, at just 15 she produced a time of 53.97 to take the aforementioned European Games title in Baku. In 2017 she logged her only other sub-54 second outing in 53.98. Her most recent PB rested at the 54.69 she produced in Eindhoven last month.
As such, Steenbergen’s 54.29 is a further indication she is on the right path in terms of coming back to form at just the right time for the Netherlands.
The men’s 100m free was void of any Olympic qualifiers with Stan Pijnenburg taking the meet title in a time of 48.75. That fell outside the 48.52 the KNZB says is needed to qualify individually. No man has qualified in the 100m free as of yet.
Royal Dutch Swimming Federation (KNZB) Olympic Qualifying Times
What is the point of setting faster qualifying standards than the FINA A Standard?
Federation doesn’t want to bring swimmers without a realistic chance of making a final.
All dutch standards have been set based on a cleaned list (2 swimmers per nation) of 16 fastest globally. As a semi finals are at least the goal. This is also because of Finances the federation gets from the national olympic committee.
The trouble with this is breakout performers who are rapidly improving plus weak events on the day where times arw not as fast as expected and someone swimming well could have a final or medal as a surprise result. The 200s seem to be like this sometimes.
There is no doubt Corbeau will be faster in May at EC – if they’re held… that’s the risk. And for sure he’ll be faster in August, if he gets the chance.
Other then Adam P, is there anyone that have more sub 59 races in the 100 breaststroke then Arno?
Which (how many) countries use qualifying times faster than the FINA A cuts?
Great Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Netherlands, (Sweden in the past, not sure about this year)?
Which country has the fastest qualifying times?
I think the Brits are the most infamous.
France is crazy also
But I admit 21.53 on the 50 free to qualify for the brits is too much…
According to swimmingstats on Instagram, Koseki of Japan has the most sub 59 swims other than Peaty.
Kinda interesting that dual citizen Corbeau might have an equal or better shot at making the US Olympic squad due to the KNZB time standards
Yeah slight drops in both breaststroke events would likely put him in the conversation in the US… the problem is there’s 15 gajillion people between 58.7 and 59.5 and another 12 bazillion in the 2:07-2:08 range