Swedish star Sarah Sjostrom had a very strong first evening of competition at the Bergen Swim Festival in Norway.
In the very first event Sjostrom took the women’s 200 freestyle in a time of 1:54.77. She was just off of Femke Heemskerk‘s world leading time of 1:55.75. It is a season’s best for Sjostrom who put up a 1:55.75 at the Swedish Grand Prix in April.
2014-2015 LCM Women 200 Free
SJOSTROM
1.54.31*relay
| 2 | Femke HEEMSKERK | NED | 1.54.68 | 04/03 |
| 3 | Federica PELLEGRINI | ITA | 1.55.00 | 07/04 |
| 4 | Katie LEDECKY | USA | 1.55.16 | 08/05 |
| 5 | Missy FRANKLIN | USA | 1.55.49 | 08/05 |
Katinka Hosszu finished second in a time of 1:56.90.
Cecilie Johannsessen finished third in a time of 1:59.42. Johannessen’s time breaks her own national record of 2:00.18. That was the first of two national records set by the Norwegian who posted 25.45 in the 50 freestyle breaking the 2012 record of 25.70 set by Henriette Brekke.
Sjostrom also took the women’s 50 butterfly where she posted a 25.35, only five one-hundredths of a second off here season’s best time of 25.30. Hosszu finished second in a time of 27.40 followed by Emilie Beckmann who hit the wall in a time of 27.75.
She then finished off the day by winning the women’s 50 freestyle in a time of 24.64. That is a season’s best for Sjostrom who now sits eighth in the world rankings.
Mie Nielsen won the women’s 100 backstroke in a time of 59.36. Here time is just off her lifetime and national record mark of 59.14. Hosszu finished second in a time of 1:00.59 followed by Ekaterina Avramova who posted a 1:02.46.
Hosszu collected gold in both the women’s 200 butterfly and the women’s 200 backstroke.
She won the 200 butterfly in a time of 2:11.84 followed by Barbora Zavadova who finished in a time of 2:14.35. Christina Munkholm took the bronze in a time of 2:15.67.
Hosszu took the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:09.78, well off of the time of 2:06.81 which she recorded in Nancy last weekend.
Jennie Johansson won the women’s 100 breaststroke posting a season’s best time of 1:07.29, finishing two seconds ahead of her next competitor. Louise Dalgaard finished second in a time of 1:09.44 followed by Silje Mikkel Borg who touched in a time of 1:10.96.
Lavrans Solli was the big winner on the men’s side taking both the 100 and 200 backstroke on Saturday evening.
Solli won the men’s 100 backstroke in a time of 54.85 over a second and a half ahead of the field. Magnus Jakupsson finished second in a time of 56.41 followed by Matthias Carlsson who finished in a time of 56.51.
He took the men’s 200 backstroke in a time of 2:03.24. This time it was a much closer race as Carlsson hit the wall in a time of 2:03.83 followed by Gergely Gyurta who touched in a time of 2:03.87.
Both the men’s 200 freestyle and 100 breaststroke had thrilling finishes.
Isaac Eliasson hit the wall one one-hundredth of a second ahead of Daniel Skaaning in the men’s 200 freestyle. Eliasson finished in a time of 1:50.24 followed by Skaaning who touched in a time of 1:50.25. Henrik Christiansen finished third in a time of 1:50.69.
Daniel Gyurta took the men’s 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:00.42 followed by Tomas Klobucnik who posted a 1:00.57 and Marco Koch who touched the wall in a time of 1:00.58.
Viktor Bromer took the 200 butterfly with ease winning the event in a time of 1:56.35. He was followed by Simon Sjodin who finished in a time of 1:58.22 and Jan Self who recorded a 1:58.54.
Full results can be found here.
Based on her times in her other events- she is no where near tapered…..
She was about a second off her bests in her 100 events. If this is true, I judge that it would be a mistake for her to not swim the 200freestyle. If she is that good, this could be her best chance at gold, as ridiculous as this sounds.
Yeah the Swedes were not tapered for this competition, this was a kick start event to get into competition again. Sarah also swam heats, quarter, semi, final in both the 50 fly and 50 free that had a knockout type system(quarters to finals were three races in 15 minutes, kinda nuts if you ask me). So she got a lot of racing under her belt.
Same in the Rome meet in a few weeks, the Swedes are going there for training purposes and will be racing as a part of it, though I think we’ll see her sprint better there. After that it’s the Swedish nationals early July, if she’s on the right track I’m thinking <24.2, <24.8, <53,… Read more »
So does this mean Sjostrom is doping, now that she whupped Katinka in this meet?
(/sarcasm)
On the serious note, Sjostrom is a great defense for Katinka. She also swims fast in a lot of events (50-200, even 400, 50/100 fly) and swims pretty fast in season and semi-rested to. If you accuse Katinka, by proxy you almost start accusing Sjostrom, and likewise, Hosszu can point to Sjostrom as not being quite as suspiciously unique as her detractors might want you to believe.
(If it’s not clear, I’m not accusing EITHER of ANYTHING illegal. I’m pointing out an inconsistency in the arguments of those who accuse)
Agree 1,000%
But, she usually does not go to US swimming races and thus does not compete for their medals/money there 🙂
Disagree. Sjostrom was 14 when she went 58.4 in the 100 fly to win the European title and 15 when she broke her first world record., She has remained with the same coach since the age of 13, who coaches a bunch of other swimmers at Sweden’s National Training Center in Stockholm including Michelle Coleman, and she typically travels every two months or so to meets that are within 3 hours flight from her home base. She’s still only 21 years old.
She’s not training under someone who has never before trained another swimmer. She’s not flying from a meet in Europe where she swam 10+ events to Reunion Island to swim all but one or two events on… Read more »
Her body has changed tremendously since 17 or 18… simple Google search will show that. She’s also jacked. Seriously, jacked.
Also, she doesn’t suffer in doubles, she has pulled off many double wins in a session in the last 12 months.
She’s raced to a WR or near WR every 6-8 weeks since November. She swims 50-400. Again, simple Google search will show results and headlines of her results. One meet (Grand Prix type meet in Europe) she won two events two nights in a row.
Many of your assertions for Sjojstrom are wrong. We can debate the physique thing… but her results speak for themselves.
And since when has coaching the super elite athletes been rocket science? Especially one… Read more »
Right, thus Femke Heemskerk’s swimming a Dutch national record of 52.69 on 100m free at age 27 is impossible, especially being better than Kromowijojo, just because she is ‘older’ and she never managed to swim so fast until now. It has nothing to do with her trainer change and with the fact that she really has a good relationship with her current trainer. And this gets even more crazy. Kromowijojo (and after her many others) left Wouda (the current trainer of Heemskerk) because she thought their personal relationship was not that great that she would be able to give her max. Is Wouda a bad or good trainer? It depends… Besides hard training, personal preferences are way too important. Whether… Read more »
…and Schmitt if she can get back to producing best times. And obviously at least 3 Europeans.
This is a very fast and deep event for Worlds this summer and in Rio next year. I expect we will see a woman go 1:52. Ledecky is one with that potential.
Together OC
Sarah and Katinka will achieve 6 to 10 medals in Rio, if they are healthy and depends on their program.
100fly comes at the beginning of the olympic schedule and 50free at the end. 100 and. 200 free somewhere in the middle. hope sjostrom will medal in rio. just like hosszu, olympic medals are conspicuously absent from their impressive credentials
I think Katinka easily can be on the podium in nearly all of the 200m races (except breaststroke) and she could win any of them.
Easily on the podium?
I disagree.
200 back, yes. For silver or bronze.
200 IM, yes. For gold.
The others, no.
Bobo, I have to disagree with you on this one. Katinka has swam great 200 flys and 200 frees in-season. Although she swims very well in-season, it is still a possibility she can medal in the 200 free and 200 fly in Rio and Kazan.