2016 Slovenian Championships
The highlight of the Slovenian Championships that took place over the weekend was butterfly specialist Robert Zbogar taking down his own national record in the 200 metre event. His swim of 1:57.29 eclipsed his previous record of 1:57.64 from the 2014 European Championships. He just missed the FINA ‘A’ qualifying standard of 1:56.97.
Distance freestyler Martin Bau, swimming for PK Brankik, had the biggest gold medal haul of anyone with three individual golds in the 400, 800, and 1500 free. He put up times of 3:54.95, 8:19.31, and 15:44.83 to win each event easily.
Other multi-gold medalists were Anja Crevar, Nastja Govejsek, Anemari Kosak, Jonatan Kopelev, Anze Tavcar, and Tara Vovk.
Crevar was victorious in both the women’s 200 and 400 IM, clocking 2:16.19 and 4:53.98 in each. She was also the runner-up in the 400 free won by Anja Klinar. Klinar won in a time of 4:08.92, a FINA-A cut.
Govejsek won the women’s sprint fly events, putting up a 26.83 in the 50 and 1:01.27 in the 100. Kosak won the women’s 50 back (30.02) and tied for the win in the 50 free (26.16) with Flora Molnar. Vovk won the 50 and 200 breast on the women’s side.
On the men’s side Kopelev, who was the only swimmer representing Israel at the meet, dominated the 50 back in 25.48 and won a tight race in the 100 in 55.26, just ahead of Viktar Staselovich (55.37) and Marko Krce-Rabar (55.50).
Tavcar, a freestyler who competes for Indiana in the NCAA, won both the 100 (49.82) and 200 freestyle (1:49.93). Tavcar recently qualified for the Olympics in the 100 free after clocking 48.88 at the European Championships earlier in May.
The men’s sprint breaststroke produced the highest FINA point swims on the male side for the meet, with Slovenia’s own Peter John Stevens and Belarusian Ilya Shymanovich battling it out. Stevens won the 50 breast by over half a second in 27.44, while Shymanovich took the 100 breast in 1:01.30 over Stevens’ 1:01.38.
The highlight of the relay events was the Slovenian women’s team putting together an 800 free relay that clocked 8:00.40, moving them ahead of Belgium for the 16th and final spot on the qualification list for the Olympics with the deadline looming on May 31st. This all but solidifies their position at the Olympics.