2017 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR – BARCELONA
- June 13-14, 2017
- Barcelona, Spain
- LCM
- Psych Sheets
- Event site
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap/Day 2 Prelims Recap
- Results
Pure speed was the name of the game on day 2 of the Mare Nostrum Barcelona, with the unforgiving Swedish sprinter Sarah Sjostrom proving once again she’s at the top of her game. Last week we saw how the Olympic gold medalist and butterfly record holder was able to maintain her incredible momentum with just minutes in between multiple events, and the 23-year-old accomplished similar remarkable feats today.
The 50m butterfly fell victim to Sjostrom first, with the Swede nabbing a new meet record time 24.76 en route to gold. That mark absolutely crushed the previous record of 25.27 held by Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen since 2014. Representing the only swimmer to go sub-25 tonight, Sjostrom took .14 off of her winning outing of 24.90 from just last weekend. Teenage Olympic gold medalist Penny Oleksiak, who unbelievably turned a mere 17 years old yesterday, took silver tonight in 25.76, with Belgium’s Kimberly Buys right behind in 25.86.
With just the men’s 400m IM final in between, Sjostrom was right back on the blocks for her 2nd event of the night, the women’s 100m freestyle. The freakishly-stacked field included Cate and Bronte Campbell, Michelle Coleman, Femke Heemskerk and Emma McKeon, all of whom were unable to match the runaway train that was Sjostrom in the race.
Last week Sjostrom fired off an impressive 52.60 to win the women’s 100m freestyle, a feat which included an opening split of 25.63. However, she crushed that outing tonight on both halves of the race. Opening the contest in 25.16, Sjostrom wound up maintaining that rapidity for the back half, closing in 27.12 to notch a huge 52.28 for the win. That mark now checks in as the top time in the world, surpassing even what she produced (52.54) from the Swedish Open.
2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 100 FREE
SJOSTROM
51.71*WR
| 2 | Simone MANUEL | USA | 52.27 | 07/28 |
| 3 | Mallory COMERFORD | USA | 52.59 | 07/23 |
| 4 | Pernille BLUME | DEN | 52.69 | 07/28 |
| 5 | Ranomi KROMOWIDJOJO | NED | 52.78 | 07/28 |
In fact, Sjostrom’s 52.28 time tonight now registers as the 4th fastest swim of all-time among a list that includes two marks from Britta Steffen from the 2009 supersuit era. The top 5 times ever in the women’s 100m freestyle, according to the USA Swimming website, are as follows:
- 52.06 Cate Campbell, WR, 2016
- 52.07 Britta Steffen, 2009
- 52.22 Britta Steffen, 2009
- 52.28, Sarah Sjostrom, 2017
- 52.33, Cate Campbell, 2013
Cate Campbell (C1) settled for silver in the race in a very solid 53.43 to beat the 54.06 she rendered last week for 4th place. Coleman also landed on the podium in bronze with a time of 53.85. Of note, Dutch Olympian Ranomi Kromowidjojo and gold medalist Penny Oleksiak also contested the women’s 100m freestyle. Kromo wound up winning the B-final in 53.42, while the Canadian clocked 54.82 in prelims, only to scratch from the final.
Following up her 200m breaststroke world record scare from last night was Russian Olympian Yulia Efimova with an encore in the shorter event. Wowing the crowd with last night’s 2:19.83 2 breast, Efimova cranked out a rapid 1:05.66 to take gold tonight the 100m distance. She was a full second faster than runner-up Jennie Johansson, the Swede who touched in 1:06.78 for silver. The Russian’s time tonight out-did what she produced at her nation’s trials in April.
2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 100 BREAST
KING
1.04.13*WR
| 2 | Yuliya EFIMOVA | RUS | 1.04.36 | 07/24 |
| 3 | Katie MEILI | USA | 1.05.03 | 07/25 |
| 4 | Ruta MEILUTYTE | LTU | 1.05.06 | 07/24 |
| 5 | Hiroko MAKINO | JPN | 1.06.05 | 01/14 |
Spain’s Mireia Belmonte was another double winner on the evening, cranking out two victories in her signature mid-distance events. First, the 200m butterfly saw the Spaniard take charge and not look back, with the Olympic gold medalist stampeding to the wall in a mighty 2:07.11 to establish a new meet record. That time beat her previous season-best of 2:08.17 by over a second and now places her as 5th fastest in the world, pre-U.S. Trials.
2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 200 FLY
BELMONTE
2.05.26
| 2 | Franziska HENTKE | GER | 2.05.39 | 07/27 |
| 3 | Katinka HOSSZU | HUN | 2.06.02 | 07/27 |
| 4 | Suzuka HASEGAWA | JPN | 2.06.29*WJR | 04/15 |
| 5 | Yilin ZHOU | CHN | 2.06.63 | 07/26 |
Belmonte was the clear winner in the women’s 400m freestyle as well, taking that event in a solid 4:05.76, a time that falls within her own personal top 10 marks of her career. Her gold medal-garnering performance from this evening overtook Hungary’s Baglarka Kapas as the 5th fastest time in the world.
2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 400 FREE
LEDECKY
3.58.34
| 2 | Leah SMITH | USA | 4.01.54 | 07/23 |
| 3 | Bingjie LI | CHN | 4.02.52 | 04/10 |
| 4 | Sarah KOHLER | GER | 4.03.96 | 08/26 |
| 5 | Ariarne TITMUS | AUS | 4.04.26 | 07/23 |
Several men threw down the heat in their respective sprint events tonight, including Brazilian Olympic finalist Bruno Fratus. On a roll with his 50m freestyle win from Monaco, as well as his 100m freestyle silver from last night, Fratus was king of the splash n’ dash for a 2nd time. Clocking 21.76, the Auburn-trained athlete was .23 ahead of 2nd place finisher Ari-Pekka Liukkenen, who touched in 21.99 as the other sub-22 second swimmer.
Australian ace James Magnussen, who is just getting back into racing since an extended competitive break post-Rio, registered a very respectable 22.15 for bronze. For Maggie, his confidence is building, having won the 100m freestyle both in Monaco and here, but no doubt his mind would really be set at some ease once he sees a 21-point 50 freestyle.
Cameron van der Burgh got the job done in the 50m breaststroke tonight, roaring to the wall in the only sub-27 second time of the field. Touching in 26.96, VDB beat his 26.99 from last weekend and now rests among the world’s top 3 in the event this season.
Additional Winners Tonight:
- Mitch Larkin of Australia continues to dominate the backstroke events, taking the 100m distance in 53.76. Taylor Dale was right behind in 54.00, a new personal best for the Athens Bulldog swimmer.
- Australia saw another backstroke winner in the form of Emily Seebohm, who scored an additional meet record tonight in Barcelona. Seebohm touched in 2:07.30 to win the women’s 200m event, overtaking the previous record held by countrymate Belinda Hocking at 2:07.91 from 2008. Seebohm also rocked the win in the 50m backstroke, earning a time of 27.80 to collect another meet record.
- Mack Horton continued the Aussie gold train, taking the men’s 1500m freestyle in 15:05.57. His time of 14:51.21 from the Aussie National Championships in April sits a the 3rd fastest time in the world currently.
- Russia’s Anton Chupkov took the men’s 200m breast event, also setting a new meet record in the process. In his 5th best personal performance ever, Chupkov clocked 2:08.41 to beat domestic rival Kirill Prigoda, who finished in 2:09.90 for silver.
- Yauhen Tsurkin was the men’s 100m butterfly winner in 52.46, beating Olympic silver medalist Laszlo Cseh by just .05.
- The Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu was in the pool several times tonight, highlighted by her win in the 200m IM in a time of 2:10.16.
- The men’s 400m freestyle winner from Russia, Aleksandr Krasnykh stood atop the podium again in Barcelona, earning a time of 1:47.39 to win the 200m freestyle in the only sub-1:48 outing of the field.
- Italy’s Federico Turrini was the men’s 400m IM winner in 4:20.37.
What have happened to Sarah Sjöström eye?
I can’t believe I skimmed over this article yesterday…
Sjostrom, to me, is the best female swimmer out there. She could/probably will win 50-100 of free and fly and also challenge Ledecky again in the 200 free.
It’ll be interesting to see if Katie improves her sprints(100 and 200) or if she just keeps rolling along on the distance swimming WR spree. If Ledecky and Sjostrom were both completely fresh they could probably challenge the 1:53 barrier.
For both Sarah and Katie the 200 distance is a borderline of their biological perfection. But if Sarah is an artist in the water and prefers to be alone swimming her race than Katie is a fierce fighter who races down an opponent. It will be all about win but not time. If you want to see a great time at 200 don’t let these girls to race each other.
1:53.7 by Katie Ledecky in Rio was in no way a perfect race. Look at the happy 1:53.61 of Allison Schmitt in London and vomiting 1:53.73 of Katie Ledecky in Rio.
P.S. if there is a problem with race videos, I can provide links.
Please post if you have them. Even the Rio videos are hard to find
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/katie-ledecky-edges-sarah-sjostrom-2nd-individual-gold
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b3YgUGhMTB4
This nbcolympics footage was cut off. And the part where Katie is trying to suppress the pre-vomiting conditions isn’t on the footage any more. But I have seen it and she talked about unpleasant feelings during the race at post race interview.
Where is Chad LeClos? I thought I read an article about Chad going to Mare Nostrum?!?
Some huge swims at these Mare Nostrum meets.
But I still wonder what’s the use of swimming so fast 5 weeks before worlds.
Cate Campbell broke the 100 free world record in early July last year before Rio.
Hopefully for her that Sjöström doesn’t peak too early. Because her freestyle looks crazy good right now. If she’s at 100% in Budapest some world records could fall.
She’s so talented. It’s crazy to think that she has won “only” 1 gold medal at olympic games in her career so far.
I think the French swimmers listen to you. Good swimmers can swim fast all the time! At least most of them. You don’t make fun of Katie L when she swims fast?….she just goes faster at the end. The French go slow at all meets, including their Trials.
Fair points re WRs shortly before “the big one” but each situation has its own particular circumstances and pontential “inputs”.
By the time of the W100FR in Rio, it was patently clear that the AUS swim team was misfiring horrendously and C1 was send as one of the final chances of rescuing some degree of respectability and the imbeciles of the AUS media certainly multiplied this factor immeasurably, not only on C1 but others who were seen as any sort of prospect. Whilst certainly not the sole cause of her implosion it was certainly not healthy or helpful.
SWE is a much smaller team, and swimming a lower profile sport, and one would think their media is far less… Read more »
A fair point perhaps regarding WR not long before the big meet but I do think you have to consider that each case has its own set of facts and inputs when looking at C1’s meltdown as against a similar outcome for SS
SWE is a much smaller team than AUS and whilst SS is most certainly their biggest star and carries the bulk of their medal hopes; the media hype is most likely 10% of what was lumped upon AUS swimmers in Rio. By the time the W100FR came around last year, it was very clear that the AUS swim team was a chronically misfiring unit and C1 was seen as one of the last main hopes of recovering… Read more »
What’s the difference between swimming fast here compared to what the Americans will be doing at trials soon? You have to be looking at it in the context that many countries do not carry a trial close to the big meet, but they still wanna race and confirm their form heading into it. All in all, I think racing fast in-season carries a lot more positives than negatives. Most of the time I would say swimmers don’t because they’re not capable enough without taper, not because they don’t want to. Ledecky, Hosszu and Sjöström are the three best female swimmers right now and they are the best all season long, tapered, untapered — even sick.
Some swimmers have the capacity to be fast “in season” (an even smaller sub-set ala SS,C1 usually, Seebohm, Hosszu can be extremely quick) but have the trade off of not being “big taper’ (don’t have massive drops w taper) as against those who need the taper to hit the fast times. There is no set right answer, its dependent of the make-up of the particular swimmer.
I do agree that frequent racing, except in circumstances when its not physically advisable to do so, is preferable even if just for the sake of reinforcing and perfecting one’s race skills. Therein lies one of my peak criticisms of too many AUS swimmers or more importantly their coaches. Too many of them have… Read more »
So did Reona Aoki actually go a 1:05.29????Because I don’t see the time in the SwimSwam world rankings anymore. Does anyone have any idea what’s up with this?
Cyrus – it’s a SCM time.
When Cate Campbell announced that she wouldn’t compete at this WC, I thought that finally Sarah Sjostrom has a great chance of exceptionally rare four gold medals sweep in sprint. Now Sarah’s performance says: it doesn’t matter if Cate is in or out. There would be no talks like about lucky Olympic gold medals in Rio.
Yulia ready to go 29.4, 1:04, and 2:18 next month which should be good enough for 3 golds and world records.
That raises the question that I cannot find answer for. If she is so good to win three gold medals with world record performance in one WC then what has pushed such a talented athlete to cheat repeatedly at first place.
I used to work with some young man who was assigned to our team from juvenile correction facility. He was their because he had uncontrollable desire to steal things. He was a nice guy and we liked him but in a month we noticed that some things began disappear. He was fired and got back to the place where he came from. He could earn with us ten times more than he has stolen. He just couldn’t stop.… Read more »
Quite the storyteller, maybe this summer you tell the story of a champion who battled back from adversity after being vilified for technicality and winning world championships and perhaps setting world records along the way. Be sure you include picture of King pouting in the stands during medal ceremony.
I don’t know you GOYULIA, but I feel that we have something in common. You and me don’t care about Yulia Efimova as a person at all. Think about it. Your “Mother Russia” and “Our Lady” in each your comments and all my storytelling that you like about Efimova who loves her country so much that uses any opportunity to get as far from it as possible – all these is all about something completely different. It can be Yulia Efimova or Vania Petrov or Petia Ivanov, it doesn’t matter. We don’t care. It is all about pride and not a bit about real people. Therefore there will be never a common ground in this dispute. Just a wasting of… Read more »
I don’t believe in seven deadly sins however it’s a good story. You can’t blame Yulia for moving to US. Mother Russia isn’t exactly a tourist destination, but it’s still good to have pride.
Those who defined this notion of major sins were thinkers with much more powerful understanding of human psychology than you can find in Sigmund Freud.
Your attempts of putting forward your pride at any possible opportunity is no different to me as postings of Ukrainian nationalists about Penny Oleksiak as a symbol of national superiority. I hope that the day comes when sport will be separated from politics and it will be no national anthem played in honor of the winner. Grand Slam competition in tennis is a good example. Nobody finds it weird and unpatriotic.
Yulia & The Bad Guy . A dissertation why swim fan GOYULIA is an enemy of western civilisation . By Prickle .
Should I know that G.I.N.A. is the same person as G.I.N.A (no period at the end) I would be flattered by your attention because it means that something important was touched. But the period at the end means end of “G.I.N.A” . Period. Therefore I will take it easy on my excitement about your comment. Who knows who you are G.I.N.A with period and if your posting deserves attention.