BERLIN SWIM OPEN
- Friday, February 28th – Sunday, March 1st
- European Sports Park, Berlin, Germany
- Meet Site
- Start Lists
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Results
- Live Stream
The 2020 Berlin Swim Open closed tonight at European Sports Park, but not before a sprinkling of different nations’ swimmers appeared atop the podium.
Finnish Olympian Jenna Laukkanen was among the victors, taking the women’s 200m breaststroke in one of only two sub-2:30 outings. Laukkanen touched in a time of 2:29.19, while Kim Herkle of Germany posted a runner-up mark of 2:29.83.
Laukkannen owns her nation’s standard with the 2:25.14 notched for a 14th place finish at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, while Herkle’s personal best rests at the 2:27.66 she put up for bronze at the Luxembourg Euro Meet just this past January.
Poland nabbed a gold tonight, courtesy of Michal Chudy in the men’s 100m fly. Chudy touched in 53.26 to beat Germany’s Ramon Klenz by just a fingernail, as Klenz settled for silver in 53.27. The pair were the only swimmers under 54 seconds tonight.
Winning the women’s 200m fly by over 3 seconds this evening was Claudia Hufnagl of Austria. Hufnagl split 1:03.65/1:07.93 to nab a winning effort of 2:11.58. She owns a PB of 2:09.76, a time that represents the Austrian national record from December of 2019.
Her teammate Marlene Kahler, the woman who cracked a new 800m free national record last night, added another gold to her Berlin Open haul. Kahler hit the wall in 2:00.54 to take the women’s 20m free ahead of Aleksandra Knop, who was also just over the two-minute mark in 2:00.84.
Germany’s Maya Tobehn, the 2019 European Junior Championships bronze medalist in this event, rounded out the top 3 in 2:00.85. Last year in Kazan she clocked a time of 1:59.72, so tonight’s effort was just over a second off of that result.
Another medalist from those European Junior Championships, Sven Schwarz of Germany, was golden again tonight, adding the men’s 800m free prize to his 1500m free and 400m free victories here.
Touching in 7:59.26, Schwarz beat the field by well over 11 seconds and produced the 2nd fastest time of his career. Tonight’s performance marks just the 2nd time the 17-year-old has been under the 8:00 threshold, with his 7:59.26 from tonight sitting behind his PB of 7:53.74 from Kazan last year. That logging gave him the bronze at the aforementioned Euro Juniors.
Additional Notes:
- The men’s 50m back saw Ole Braunschweig of Germany get it done for gold in 25.11, while multi-Austrian record holder Bernhard Reitshammer clocked 25.56 for silver.
- Reitshammer was back in the pool to take the men’s 50m free in 22.83 and he also snared silver in the 50m breast in 27.94.
- Taking the men’s 50m breast, however, was Valentin Bayer, Reitshammer’s countryman who logged a lifetime best of 27.90 to take gold tonight.
- Another Austrian, Patrick Staber, got the 200m IM top prize in 2:02.41.
