19-year-old Casper Puggaard clocks 51.87 100 fly at Danish Open, sets Danish record

2024 Danish Open

• April 11 to 14, 2024
• LCM (50 meters)
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Live Results

On Thursday, the 2024 Danish Open kicked off, and many of Denmark’s top swimmers (and swimmers from other nations as well) competed. On opening night, the men’s 100 fly, 800 free, 200 breast, 200 back and 50 free were contested, while the 100 back, 400 free, 100 breast, 200 IM, and 50 fly were raced on the women’s side.

The biggest highlight of the first session was 2023 World Junior Champion and 19-year-old Casper Puggaard, who became the first-ever Danish swimmer to break 52 seconds in the 100 fly. He clocked a time of 51.87 in prelims, beating out Jakob Andjkaer‘s previous record time of 52.09 from April 2009. Puggaard also took a considerable amount of time off his previous best of 52.30 which won at World Juniors.

In the finals, Puggaard clocked a 52.23, winning his heat.

Split Comparison:

Another standout was 16-year-old Nicholas Castella, who won the 200 back in a time of 2:00.30. That time is a Danish Junior Record, breaking the record of 2:00.61 that he set during prelims. Coming into the meet, the record was a 2:01.22 set by Castella back in July 2023 at the European Junior Championships.

Alexander Norgaard won the 800 free in a time of 7:58.73, dipping under the eight-minute barrier for the first time since the Tokyo Olympic games.

Thea Blomsterberg, a 2023 World Championships finalist in the 200 breast, set a best time in the 100 breast. She swam a 1:07.17, improving upon the 1:07.64 she clocked in April of 2023. 2018 European Championships 50 fly silver medalist Emilie Beckmann also won the event at this meet, clocking a 26.43.

The only non-Danish winner on Thursday night was Sweden’s Elias Persson, who went 22.39 to win the 50 free.

Other Event winners:

• Women’s 100 back: Schastine Tabor — 1:01.11
• Women’s 400 free: Caroline Wiuff — 4:20.71
• Men’s 200 breast: Mathias Christensen — 2:16.90
• Women’s 200 IM: Hannah Bergman — 2:13.62