It has been a good week at the Swedish National Swimming Championships for Sarah Sjostrom. Over the five day competition she has collected five individual gold, five meet records, a best ever textile mark and destroyed the world record in the 50 butterfly, not bad.
On day one she won the women’s 200 freestyle in meet record time of 1:56.56. On day two she broke the meet record en route to winning the 100 butterfly, tying a season’s best time of 56.50. On day three she took the 50 freestyle in a time of 23.98, a new meet record and also the fastest time ever done in a textile suit. Day four saw an incredible performance in the women’s 50 butterfly where she destroyed Therese Alshammar‘s 2009 world record of 25.07 by winning the event in a time of 24.43.
Today she wrapped up the competition by taking the women’s 100 freestyle in a time of 53.03. Although Sjostrom missed her season’s best time of 52.73, which she posted at the Swim Cup in April, it is her third fastest performance of the year with only Australian sisters, Cate and Bronte Campbell, have swum faster.
Michelle Coleman finished second in a time of 54.09 followed by Josefin Lindkvist who collected the bronze in a time of 56.38.
Oscar Ekstrom followed up a day where he broke two Swedish junior marks by winning the men’s 200 freestyle in a time of 1:50.99. The swim represented another huge improvement for the young swimmer who came into the competition with a lifetime best of 1:52.33.
The win did not come easy. Ekstrom and Robin Andreasson went into the final 50 meters with only two one-hundredths of a second separating the two. Andreasson eventually finished second in a time of 1:51.40.
Simon Sjodin dominated the men’s 200 IM winning the event by almost four seconds. Sjodin took the title in a season’s best time of 2:01.16.
The women’s 200 IM was a tight battle between two athletes who have earned multiple medals at the competition as Louise Hansson out swam Stina Gardell for the gold in the event. Hansson finished in a time of 2:14.64 followed by Gardell who touched in a time of 2:15.25.
Ida Marko-Varga won the women’s 200 butterfly in a time of 2:14.16 while Erik Persson took the men’s 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:02.63.
Full results can be found here.
She won’t swim 200 free at euro but she swam it at 2012 Olympics and 2011 worlds??
I don’t get her.
Today I think she lacked the last bit of preparation and energy, I saw her in a TV studio between the prelims and final for instance. 53.03 was very good considering all.
In 100 fly she had a miserable finish, it was a better race then the time gave her credit for. I’m really looking forward to that one in Berlin. 200 free was clearly a bit too long without taper but she didn’t really push herself in that one, and she won’t swim it at the euros either.
I wonder if Sarah is still trying to find herself in swimming(what is scary!).That explain her out of pace swims around these meetings(sometimes faster 50 or faster 200, or…).IF she finds her pace for rio2016, she will be a tough girl to beat.
She has been unreal in the 50 fly and crazy fast in the 50 free.
Human in the 100s.
“Slow” in the 200 free.
I would have never thought she would become a 50s queen a few years ago.
She hasn’t been a 50s swimmer in my eyes either.
As far as I know Sjöström is not trying to prefer 50s to longer distances – quite the contrary. For intance, she skipped 50m fly at the World Championships in Barcelona, explaining that 100m free is a little bit more a “queen event” than 50m fly. Furthermore, she tends to be stronger at coming home in 100s than her competitors, especially so in a 100m fly in which her second half is always strong. In my book it’s typically a characteristic of someone who is good at 100s and probably 200s but no so much at 50s. James Magnussen is a good example of that.
I hope Sarah Sjöström… Read more »