The first day of short course Belgian Nationals saw 22-year-old Fanny Lecluyse extend her reach further into the national record-books while winning a pair of events.
Lecluyse, the Belgian record-holder in the 200 breaststroke both short course and long course, nabbed the short course 100 breaststroke mark. She crushed the field by 5 seconds, going 1:05.90 to break the record held by Brigitte Becue since 1998. That makes the mark 16 years old, just six years younger than Lecluyse herself.
She also won the 200 IM later on in similarly dominating fashion. Her time of 2:11.61 won by 6 seconds, but was still a few ticks off the national mark of 2:09.27 held by Kimberly Buys.
Buys herself was the other big winner at the meet, taking home three national titles. She won the 100 fly (58.67), 50 back (28.00) and 50 free (25.21), all within the same session.
On the mens’ side, Lander Hendrickx won twice. He paced the 100 back (54.91) and 400 free (3:46.92) in what was a tough day 1 double.
The closest race was the men’s 50 free, where Ukranian Andriy Govorov raced to a stalemate with Belgium’s Gilles de Wilde. Both men were 23.32 and well ahead of the rest of the pack.
Also on day 1 was the men’s 100 free, which was a tight battle to kick the meet off. Jasper Aerents went 48.34 to just beat out national record-holder Pieter Timmers (48.37). Meanwhile Francois Heersbrandt, who went 48.08 to take the top spot out of prelims, faded to third in 48.58.
The meet wraps up tomorrow. You can find full, live results here.
