Peaty Looking Forward To Showdown With Kamminga In Rotterdam

2023 ROTTERDAM QUALIFICATION MEET

• Thursday, November 30th – Sunday, December 3rd
• Zwemcentrum Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• LCM (50m)
• 2024 World Championships and 2024 Olympic qualifying competition
• Entries
• Live Results
• Livestream

The 2023 Rotterdam Qualification Meet is one of the premier competitions kicking off later this week. The four-day affair represents a selection meet for Dutch swimmers for both the 2024 World Championships and 2024 Olympic Games.

Along with top talent from the home nation to the tune of Arno Kamminga, Marrit Steenbergen, Thom de Boer, Tes Schouten and Kira Toussaint, there are contingents visiting the Netherlands from Great Britain, Canada, Spain and beyond.

The British roster represents the largest, with athletes stemming from training bases at Loughborough, Edinburgh, Bath and more getting some elite-level racing in before the European Short Course Championships next month.

Olympic champion Adam Peaty is among the British lineup, with the 28-year-old particularly looking forward to battling his Tokyo podium partner Kamminga.

“The competition between Arno and I is a great prospect! I am looking forward to racing with him again. It is always nice to meet another top swimmer in your own country,” Peaty said.

Coming off of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup circuit, Peaty stated regarding this Rotterdam meet, “The tournament fits perfectly into the periodization and our plan towards Paris 2024. Everything we read about the event, the information we received and the images we saw, gave us a very good impression. Rotterdam is a great city.”

Whereas in the past most spectators would wager on a Peaty victory, the Loughborough star is coming off of an up-and-down year. He dropped the British Trials and, therefore, the World Championships for mental health reasons.

Peaty’s times are still ramping up, where his season-best in the 100m breast sits at 59.25, placing him an uncharacteristic 5th in the world rankings. Kamminga, on the other hand, represents one of two sub-59-second swimmers, holding a season-best of 58.68 from the Budapest World Cup meet.

Irish dynamo Daniel Wiffen is expected to compete in Rotterdam as well. The World Championships finalist has a spectacular 2023 resume thus far. The 22-year-old owns the top times in the world across the SCM 400, 800 and 1500 free events, so we’ll see what the Loughborough-trained ace can do in long course this week.

Spanish Olympic champion Mireia Belmonte is also among the list of entrants with the versatile 33-year-old set to take on the women’s 200m/400m free, 100m/200m fly and 200m IM.

Belmonte has largely been absent from the pool for the better part of a year, only recently racing at a short course competition last month in Spain.

Quotes courtesy of The Royal Dutch Swimming Federation (KNZB)

Below are the key entrants per nation:

Austria

• Heiko Gigler, Bernhard Reitshammer, Valentin Bayer, Christopher Rothbauer, Simon Bucher, Felix Auboeck, Lena Grabowski

Belgium

• Alisse Pisane, Jordan Bouchat, Lucas Henveaux

Canada

• Yuri Kisil, Rebecca Smith, Kylie Masse, Ingrid Wilm

Germany

• Alina Baievych, David Thomasberger, Lucas Matzerath

Great Britain

• Lewis Burras, David Cumberlidge, Tom Dean, Jacob Whittle, Ed Mildred, Kieran Bird, Luke Greenbank, Matthew Ward, Jakob Goodman, Daniel Wiffen, Jonathan Adam, Brodie Williams, Cameron Brooker, Conor Ferguson, Adam Peaty, James Wilby, Greg Butler, Jacob Peters, Freya Anderson, Fleur Lewis, Lauren Cox, Holly Hibbott, Lucy Grieve

Israel

• Yakov Toumarkin

Netherlands

• Thom de Boer, Kenzo Simons, Jesse Puts, Nyls Korstanje, Caspar Corbeau, Maaike de Waaard, Marrit Steenbergen, Kim Busch, Tessa Giele, Kira Toussaint, Tes Schouten, Thomas Verhhoeven, Valerie van Roon, Stan Pjnenberg, Arno Kamminga

Norway

• Nicholas Lia, Jon Jontvedt, Henrik Christiansen, Markus Lie

Poland

• Kasia Wasick, Dawid Wiekiera

Spain

• Lidon Campo, Mireia Belmonte, Alba Vazquez Ruiz, Cesar Valle, Jessica Val

Suriname

• Renzo Tjon-A-Joe

Sweden

• Victor Johansson, Louise Hansson