SPRINTTITALLI TIME TRIAL
- Finland
- July 28, 2020
- Long course meters (LCM)
At an unofficial time trial hosted by Finnish club team Sprinttitalli on Tuesday, July 28, sprinter Ari-Pekka Liukkonen put up several strong swims in long course meters (LCM), albeit wearing a full-body suit that has been banned for official competition by FINA in 2009.
In the 50 fly, Liukkonen clocked a 23.44, which is actually quicker than Finland’s national record of 23.50 done in 2002 by Jere Hård. It’s well under his lifetime best of 24.02 from 2017, but it won’t count as an official time or record due to his wearing a banned suit. Just ten minutes later, Liukkonen dove in again for the 50 free time trial, hitting a 21.95; his best time in that race is a 21.58, also from 2017.
Liukkonen did these two swims after first racing a 50 breast, which was also spaced ten minutes before the 50 fly, meaning he raced all three events in roughly a 20-minute timespan. The Finnish NR-holder in the 50 and 100 free, Liukkonen was 28.02 in the 50 breast, not far from his best of 27.66.
Liukkonen was a World Champs finalist at the 2017 Worlds (LCM) and 2016 Worlds (SCM) in the 50 free, placing sixth in 2017 and fifth in 2016.
“The results were great in the middle of the hard, hell week training cycles,” said Sprinttitalli’s head coach, Marko Malvela. “This sends the Olympic year on its way with a blast.”
super cool to see. ISL should sponsor a fun post Olympics pre-season shootout with super suits. Could include fun events like 50m underwater
It would be cool to see Ben Proud use one of these
When the ISL was announced as a non-fina league I was hoping they would have the super suits. Currently they only use them in the fin racing series which I wish some Americans would attend.
Built different
Where did he even find a tech suit? Has he had a suit built for a 6’10” guy lying around since 2009?
Considering he’s 31 years old, he was definitely swimming during the supersuit era and probably did have one sitting around. I know I have my old LZR Racer bodysuit in my memorabilia collection, though he obviously took better care of his than I have.