Timmers Snags 100 Free Win, Powers Medley Squad To Belgian Record

2019 BELGIAN OPEN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, November 9th & Sunday, November 10th
• Lago Gent Rozebroeken, Gent, Belgium
• SCM
• SwimSwam Preview
• Start Lists
• Live Results

The 2019 Belgian Open Short Course Championships kicked off tonight in Gent, with several swimmers from the host nation clocking times swift enough to punch their tickets to the European Short Course Championships this December in Glasgow, Scotland. We expect the official roster to be announced on Tuesday after the action here is said and done, but here are the top times from day 1.

Olympic silver medalist Pieter Timmers successfully slid under the 47.50 QT with a winning 100m free time of 47.43. Clocking splits of 22.96/24.47, Timmers took the national title by nearly a second.

Timmers came away with the silver in the 100m free at the 2017 edition of the European Short Course Championships in Copenhagen, where his lifetime best of 46.54 there established a new national record.

Runner-up tonight went to Alexandre Marcourt in 48.33, while visiting teenager Kenzo Simons of the Netherlands notched 48.61 for bronze.

In another close call for qualification, Lander Hendrickx got to the wall first in the men’s 400m free final, stopping the clock in 3:43.33. That narrowly sneaked under the standard of 3:43.42 needed to add his name to the Belgian roster.

Valentine Dumont got it done in the women’s 200m free, charging to the wall in a winning effort of 1:56.39. That dipped under the QT of 1:56.91 needed for Glasgow. She owns a lifetime best of 1:55.67, which she earned en route to 6th place in Copenhagen.

Additional qualifiers included Louis Croenen clinching the 200m fly win in 1:53.83 and Florine Gaspard in the 100m breast with a time of 1:05.97.

Closing the meet in style was the foursome of Dries Vangoetsenhoven, Sebastien De Meulemeeseter, Niels Callewaert and Timmers. The squad registered a new Belgian national record in the men’s 4x50m medley relay.

With respective splits of 26.13, 23.42, 28.26 and 21.05, the men combined to clock a new mark of 1:38.86 to overtake the previous NR of 1:39.71 from 2012.