You are working on Staging1

Rotterdam Qual Meet Day 1: Seemanova Fires Off 1:55.59 200 Free, Wiffen Tops 1500 Heats

2023 ROTTERDAM QUALIFICATION MEET

The 2023 Rotterdam Qualification Meet kicked off today from the Netherlands with the competition representing a selection opportunity for Dutch swimmers to earn World Championships and Olympic berths.

Along with a strong domestic contingent, swimmers are visiting from Great Britain, Spain and beyond.

To kick things off, Olympic champion Tom Dean (GBR) grabbed the gold in the men’s 200m freestyle by the narrowest of margins.

The 23-year-old Bath-based ace produced a time of 1:47.50 to get to the wall just .01 ahead of Cesar Castro Valle of Spain who settled for silver in 1:47.51.

Two other men also got under the 1:48 barrier, with Saso Boskan of Slovenia posting 1:47.62 as the bronze medalist and Austria’s Felix Auboeck touching in 1:47.88 for the 4th place finish. Boskann’s outing represents a new personal best and new national record.

The women’s 200m free saw Barbora Seemanova put her own Czech Republic national record on notice en route to topping the podium.

The 23-year-old logged a winning result of 1:55.59, falling just .14 shy of her fastest-ever time of 1:55.45. That record was put on the books when she placed 6th in the event at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Dutch Olympian Marrit Steenbergen was less than a second behind with a mark of 1:56.19 as tonight’s silver medalist. Valentine Dumont of Belgium rounded out the top 3 performers in a time of 1:58.45.

The trio all dipped under the 1:58.66 benchmark needed to qualify for the 2024 World Championships while both Seemanova and Steenbergen cleared the 1:57.26 Olympic Qualification Time needed for Paris.

Seemanova now ranks 2nd in the world this season, sitting only behind Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey.

2023-2024 LCM Women 200 Free

AriarneAUS
TITMUS
06/12
1:52.23 WR
2Mollie
O'Callaghan
AUS1:52.4806/12
3Summer
MCINTOSH
CAN1:53.6905/14
4Siobhan
HAUGHEY
HKG1:54.0810/21
5Junxuan
Yang
CHN1:54.3704/21
View Top 31»

Olympic medalist Luke Greenbank was also in the water tonight for Great Britain, making some noise in his pet event of the men’s 200m backstroke.

The Loughborough swimmer produced a solid morning outing of 1:57.88 to take the top seed out of the heats before putting up a quicker 1:56.94 to ultimately take the gold.

In fact, the entire podium hailed from GBR, as Commonwealth Games champion Brodie Williams snagged silver in 1:57.74 and Cameron Brooker bagged bronze in 1:58.57.

Greenbank owns the British national record in this event with the 1:54.43 he hit at the 2021 European Championships. His effort this evening now ranks him 7th in the world.

Imogen Clark was another standout British star, taking on the women’s 50m breaststroke. The national record holder stopped the clock in 30.30 to get the job done, although she was slightly faster in the morning heats with a time of 30.20.

She owns the British standard at the 30.02 she turned in for silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Clark’s morning result here inserts her in the 5th slot on this season’s world rankings.

2023-2024 LCM Women 50 Breast

2 Qianting
TANG
CHN29.5102/18
3Benedetta
PILATO
ITA29.5811/30
4Tatjana
SCHOENMAKER
RSA30.0904/08
5Satomi
SUZUKI
JPN30.1010/08
View Top 31»

Irishman Daniel Wiffen was the top swimmer by far in the men’s 1500m freestyle hets but his twin brother Nathan Wiffen is on the prowl.

D. Wiffen earned lane 4 in 14:55.60 followed by N. Wiffen who touched nearly 20 seconds later in 15:24.88. Norway’s Henrik Christiansen posted 15:25.74 as the 3rd placed prelims swimmer.

D. Wiffen already owns the top times in the world in the SCM 400, 800 and 1500 freestyle events. He’s now the 3rd-swiftest performer in the world in this LCM 1500 free.

2023-2024 LCM Men 1500 Free

BobbyUSA
FINKE
08/04
WR 14:30.67
2Daniel
Wiffen
IRL14:34.0702/18
3Gregorio
PALTRINIERI
ITA14:34.5508/04
4David
BETLEHEM
HUN14:40.9108/04
5Kuzey
Tuncelli
TURWJR 14:41.2208/04
View Top 31»

Additional Notes

  • Canadian Kylie Masse reaped the victory in the women’s 200m back in a time of 2:09.79, the sole outing of the field under 2:10.
  • Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands got under the World Championships qualifying time in the men’s 50m breast, registering 27.01 for gold. Teammate Koen de Groot was at the wall next in 27.04 and Germany’s Lucas Matzerath also landed on the podium in 27.26. Norway’s Nicholas Lia was disqualified and Great Britain’s Olympic champion Adam Peaty was entered in the event but did not swim. James Wilby (GBR) placed 11th in the morning heats in 28.14
  • The men’s 200m fly saw Ondrej Gemov of the Czech Republic come away with gold in 1:57.40 while Germany’s Alina Baievych hit a time of 2:11.56 as the women’s gold medalist. Of note, GBR’s Jacob Peters was disqualified in the men’s race and Spanish Olympic champion Mireia Belmonte was entered in the women’s contest but did not dive in. Germany’s David Thomasberger also opted out of the men’s edition.
  • Angela Martinez Guillen of Spain was the winner of the women’s 1500m free in 16:30.78 this evening.

In This Story

13
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

13 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
John
11 months ago

Seemanova is one of the most overlooked swimmers just because of the sheer talent that has emerged in the 200 recently

Troyy
11 months ago

Is Masse still training with Titley in Spain?

Chachi
11 months ago

Caspar’s gonna have a really good 100 and 200. He and Arno are in good form.

PFA
Reply to  Chachi
11 months ago

First sub 2:08 for him he’s on the way up and could overtake Arno this year

Dee
11 months ago

She didn’t get a mention but Angharad Evans had a hell of a day – 31.6 to 30.6 in the 50 breast. She was a bit of a phenom (32.0/1.09.8 aged 13) so it’ll be interesting to see if she csn continue to improve now back in the UK.

Swimm
Reply to  Dee
11 months ago

She was very fast at BUCs

Swimmer
Reply to  Dee
11 months ago

Didn’t she commit to Georgia a few years ago? What happened there?

Swimm
Reply to  Swimmer
11 months ago

She left?

Jan
11 months ago

1500 was a heat. Final will be tomorrow evening.

Scuncan Dott v2
11 months ago

Apparently Peaty’s ill so he’s scratched the entire meet:
https://twitter.com/WeberNatasja/status/1730136987795890467

Also, Greenbank hitting a 1:56 is very impressive, he took a similar break to Peaty after trials and this is his first meet back since then.

Last edited 11 months ago by Scuncan Dott v2
Mlison Aackay
Reply to  Scuncan Dott v2
11 months ago

Hmmm. Maybe he was reading his own book?

Swimm
Reply to  Scuncan Dott v2
11 months ago

Wilby-itis

Scuncan Dott v2
11 months ago

deleted.

Last edited 11 months ago by Scuncan Dott v2

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »