21ST LUXEMBOURG EURO MEET
- January 25-27 2019
- d’Coque, Luxembourg
- 50m (Long Course Meters)
- Meet website
- Schedule
- Entry List
- Results
It’s not all too often that superstars Sarah Sjöström and Katinka Hosszu race a meet and not dominate. That happened today, as Sjöström won just one event and Hosszu did not win any.
The 50 back was the first event for both of them, with Sjöström at 5th (28.69) and Hosszu 6th (28.96). Italian Silvia Scalia was 28.04 for the win. Going right into the 200 free, the next event, Sjöström was defeat by German teenager Julia Mrozinski, 1:59.40 to 1:59.59. The Swede led by over a second off the final turn, but Mrozinski tracked her down during the final length.
In the 100 fly, the next women’s event after the 200 free, Sjöström was back in the pool again. After typically hitting 56’s and 57’s in season, she was well off of that at 1:00.04 to take 7th, with Hosszu back and grabbing 3rd (59.15). Italian Ilaria Bianchi posted a 58.47 for the win there. Hosszu then raced the 200 breast, right after the 100 fly, taking 4th in 2:31.64 while Danish teenager Thea Blomsterberg (2:27.30) won it.
Sjöström did get herself a win in her fourth event of the night, the 50 free. The only finisher under 25 seconds, she posted a 24.65 to take it easily.
Three meet records went down tonight, all in 50’s. In the women’s 50 breast, Italian Martina Carraro was 30.70, slicing two tenths off of Ruta Meilutyte‘s 2013 meet record. Briton Ben Proud was the only swimmer under 22 seconds in the 50 free, and he went 21.71 to take almost two tenths off of his own 2018 meet record. In the 50 back, the third meet record was set by Robert Glinta at 24.83 as he followed up his 100 back win from last night. He took a bit off of the 25.16 mark that was shared by Jonatan Kopelev (2012) and Apostolos Christou (2016).
OTHER WINNERS
- Marco Koch of Germany swam a 2:09.69 to take the men’s 200 breast.
- Another German, Poul Zellmann, was 1:48.81 to win the men’s 200 free over Russian Kliment Kolesnikov (1:49.48).
- Ukraine’s Sergiy Frolov was 8:01.07 to win the men’s 800 free.
- The women’s 1500 free went to Polly Holden with a 16:34.82.
- Italian Federico Burdisso followed up his night 1 win in the 200 fly with a 52.78 to win the men’s 100 fly.
- Nicolo Martinenghi, who only recently got back to racing after a groin injury had kept him out of competition for nearly the entirety of 2018, took the men’s 50 breast in 27.16, about two tenths from his PR.
Hosszu won three tonight (Sunday) and Sjostrom one so don’t write them off yet.
In other news, did you hear about Sun Yang smashing a blood sample vial? I am surprised Swimswam did not run a story on that.
I just read this! https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/hot-water-sun-yang-smashed-blood-test-with-hammer-20190127-p50tyd.html Wow if true.
“The incident did not end until nearly 4am.” Yang’s gonna yang.
‘roid rage?
Yeah, I was also suprised when I couldnt find a story on here about it. I suspect its because its really unclear about the facts at the moment, and Swimswam usually likes to get it right when they report stuff
Proud going 21.7 already is the big takeaway for me
Indeed. Last year he went 23.0 in the 50 fly and 21.89 in the 50 free. This year he’s flipped that, going “only” 23.5 in the fly, but 21.7 in the free. Suggests he’s putting more focus on the 50 free, which seems sensible heading towards Tokyo.
Also worth noting that his teammates from Energy standard have been a bit off at this meet generally (e.g. Sjostrom and Davies, both a fair bit down on last year’s times). As always, it’s easy to read too much into this sort of thing, but it could suggest they’re in heavy training, which would make that 21.7 all the more impressive.
Having said that, Proud’s just gone 49.98 in the 100 free, which by my reckoning is the fastest he’s been off a flat start since trials in 2016 (though he had some very useful relay splits at the Commonwealth games last year – split 47.9 in the medley relay). So it’s more than possible that my “heavy training” analysis could be a load of rubbish 🙂
47.9 relay start is not good enough for a guy who goes 21 though. Needs to be 47 low. He cost England the gold and as you say that is his best hundred he’s had for a while. In fairness he has said he isn’t interested in the 100 anymore but if that is the case he shouldn’t be picked for relays.
They have no better guys to pick.
The inconsistency between Proud’s times in the 50 and the 100 never fails to amaze me. I mean of course there are other pure sprinters out there, but generally they can still post a decent 100 by swimming for dear life in the back half. Ervin, Morozov and others, have all been successful in the 100 although they are essentially 50 guys.
😀 😀
Isn’t it strange that both superstars were poorly performing on the same day?
“…
The International Swimming League, an upstart swimming league backed by Russian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin, announced on Friday evening that a number of European swimming superstars met earlier in the day in Luxembourg to continue discussions about the formation of an athletes’ association. The meetings took place around the backdrop of this weekend’s EuroMeet in Luxembourg. ”
That is it. The celebration went probably wild and the reception of Russian billionaire was probably very generous.
😀 😀
It’s crazy to me that it’s been a decade since Sjostrom broke the WR in 2009…and that she’s still only 25. She’s had such an interesting career arc, thanks to the 4th-4th-4th, missing finals in 2 of 3 events in London (and another 4th in the 100 fly), then in 2013 it was like a switch was flipped and she was just destroying the sprint butterfliers, and got insanely good in the short freestyles too.
Sarah Sjostrom holds currently four (!!!!!) sprint LCM most prestigious world records. And those are records of highest quality that will stay unbroken for long time. She can do whatever she wants and nothing will harm her legacy.
She and Katie Ledecky are phenomena that comes in generations.
they are very strong records but the freestyle records wont stand for that long at all
One has to admit that Hosszu’s 400IM was quite acceptable. At least it is the current #1 in the world this season.
The real test on “ironness” will be tomorrow: 400FR-200BK-200IM. And all events will be contested if to believe seed times.
Ok, I admit it.
What I’m liking about this meet that there are plenty of young and very young faces both in the pool and on stands. And whoever are on the podium are really happy to be there.
You are not precisely right about Hosszu’s achievement. First of all she has beaten unbeatable in 100 fly Sarah Sjostrom. But not only that, she managed to medal (bronze) in this event. When did she do it last time? 😀
I think that once the dust settles and details of this meet get forgotten the Hosszu’s biographers will be underlying the fact that nobody felt safe in the race in Hosszu’s presence. Even the greatest of greatest. 😀