Hosszu Sets a New European Mark in the 400 IM in Marseille

2016 FFN GOLDEN TOUR CAMILLE MUFFAT – MARSEILLE

• Dates: Friday, March 4 – Sunday, March 6, 2016
• Prelims 9 am GMT+1 (3 am EST/12 am PST); finals 5 pm on Friday and Saturday (11 am EST/8 am PST), 3:30 pm on Sunday (9:30 am EST/6:30 am PST)
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Katinka Hosszu kicked off the Golden Tour in Marseille with a fantastic 400 IM, setting a new European record and winning the event a time of 4:29.89. Hosszu broke her own record of 4:30.31, which she set during the suit-era 2009 World Championships in Rome. The Hungarian #IronLady just missed breaking the record this past summer at the World Championships in Kazan where she won the event in a time of 4:30.39.

Hosszu was ahead of world record pace by over a second at the 300 meter mark, but was not able to come close to matching the unbelievable freestyle split of 58.68 that Ye Shiwen put up during her world-record swim at the 2012 Olympics in London.

• Hosszu (Marseille 2016) – 1:01.19/2:10.35 (1:09.16)/3:28.35 (1:18.00)/4:29.89 (1:01.54)
• Hosszu (Rome 2009) – 1:01.61/2:09.29 (1:07.68)/3:28.81 (1:19.52)/4:30.31 (1:01.50)
• Ye Shiwen (London 2012) – 1:02.19/2:11.73 (1:09.54)/3:29.81 (1:18.08)/4:28.43 (58.68)

Hosszu’s swim today is by far the fastest time from the 2015-16 season, improving on her old season-best 4:32.25. The next fastest in the world rankings is a 4:34.82 posted by Aimee Willmott of Great Britain.

Moving forward into this summer, Hosszu has spent the last few months swimming stronger than just about anyone in the world. Where most international, non-college swimmers are swimming well right now, but not quite at a level to post personal or even season-bests (see this weekend’s Arena PSS-Orlando), Hosszu is the only one out there who is in a position to take down international records. If she carries this momentum all the way through to Rio, world records will fall left and right.