Day 1 of the 2012 German Long Course Nationals, which also serves as the squad’s Olympic Trials, did not see the true stars come out.
It was, however, a good opportunity for swimmers to come into the pool in Berlin and warmup to the competition. The two Olympic events on the first day were the men’s and women’s 400 IM’s, with each race getting a 10-lane final. Swimmers must meet the required qualifying times in the finals of German Nationals, and then open spots may be filled based on the finals of the European Championships next week.
The qualifying times, which can be seen on page 2 here, are based on the top 10 at the World Championships in 2011. Once again, even with a turnover in their head coaching program, Germany may be headed for a situation where athletes are forced to burn a full taper just to make qualifying times.
A single Olympic qualifying spot was handed out on the first day of competition, that being in the men’s 400 IM where Yannick Lebherz swam a 4:14.90, which is within a second of his National Record, and the third-best time of his career. After breaking the record at last year’s qualifying, he like many were bitten by the “qualifying standard” bug and added three seconds to be left in the prelims in Shanghai.
The positive sign is that not only did he seem to save more of his taper this year, but he’s really put in work on his butterfly to get that opening split down to 57.95. He’s gone out that fast before (he was a hard-started earlier in his career), but never before without collapsing at the end of the race.
This time puts him into the top 15 in the world.
The runner-up in the race was Jacob Heidtmann in 4:21.11, which is a new German 18 & under record by a full second. That also ties the 19 & under record that Lebherz set in 2008. He took those records just ahead of fellow 1994’er Kevin Wedel, who was 3rd in 4:21.20.
In the women’s 400 IM, veteran Katharina Schiller was able to make a big improvement off of her 2011 time, but a 4:44.52 left her well short of the mandated qualifying time.
Meanwhile, the two best swims of the meet probably came in the non-Olympic distance events, which were dominated by junior-level swimmers. 16-year old Poul Zellman out of Madgeburg broke the National Age Record in the men’s 800 free with an 8:04.70, just behind overall winner Manuel Schwarz in 8:02.04. In the girls’ 1500, Leonie Beck was able to take the overall National Title, despite being only 14, in 16:41.69. That too is a new National Age Record.
In the women’s 400 free relay, Britta Steffen got herself warmed up with a very good 53.65 leadoff for Neukolln’s 400 free relay, as she and her teammates (including Dorothea Brandt) took the win in 3:44.52. Steffen is the defending double-sprint Olympic champion, but has been very up and down since Rome in 2009 where she was crushing World Records. This swim is already half-a-second faster than she’s been in the last three years, ranks her 4th in the world this year, and all-of-a-sudden puts her right back into the thick of Olympic contention.
The best split in the men’s relay was a 49.32 anchor from 34-year old Stefan Herbst.
Friday will start the big action, as World Record holder Paul Biedermann will begin his meet in the 200 free.