Victor Johansson Sets Swedish Championship Record, Qualifies for European Champs

2022 Swedish National Championships

• June 29, 2022-July 3, 2022
• Tinnerbäcksbadet, Linköping, Sweden
• Long Course Meters (50 meters), prelims/finals
• European Championship qualifying criteria
• Results
• Championship Site (Including Live Stream)

Victor Johansson set a new Meet Record in the 400 free and picked up two wins on the first day of the 2022 Swedish National Championships, while multiple swimmers added their names to the European Championships roster.

Sweden’s qualifying period for the European Championships is from June 1 to July 4th this year. While it doesn’t appear, so far, like we’ll get any entries from the team’s World Championships roster at this week’s nationals, for other swimmers, it is an opportunity to qualify for August’s European Championships.

Time standards for that qualification are set based on 16th place at last year’s European Championships, with up to four swimmers taken per event.

For Johansson, this is his first meet (with individual swims) during that qualifying period, and he locked up qualification in one event and won two events on Wednesday.

First, in the 400 free, he swam 3:47.90, which broke the Meet Record in the event. The previous Meet Record of 3:49.21 was set in 1988 by five-time Olympic medalist Anders Holmertz, who remains the National Record holder in the event. Johansson’s swim was half-a-second short of his lifetime best of 3:47.33 from 2018, and is the fastest that he has been since that year.

Later in the session, he won the 200 fly in 2:00.79. That put him narrowly ahead of runner-up Victor Jalamo, who was 2nd in 2:00.87. Johansson was trailing by a second-and-a-half going into the final 50, but a closing split of 30.91 was enough to give him the win.

Both swimmers were shy of the 1:57.96 qualifying time for the European Championships.

• Read: Victor Johansson Details “Nightmare” 2020

Johansson wasn’t the only swimmer to add his name to the European Championship roster on Wednesday: Daniel Raisanen punched his ticket in the 200 breaststroke.

Raisanen won the race comfortably, by more than five seconds, in 2:11.63. That put him six-tenths under the qualifying standard for Euros.

The runner-up in that race was William Lulek in 2:16.84 – noteworthy because Raisanen and Lulek both train in the United States at Penn State. Raisanen qualified for the NCAA Championships in March, where he placed 18th in the 100 yard breaststroke and 27th in the 200 yard breaststroke.

Other Day 1 Event Winners:

• 16-year old Lisa Nystrand won the 200 IM in 2:16.35. Her best time is 2:15.08.
• American-trained swimmer Samuel Tornqvist won the 100 backstroke in 57.01, about half-a-second short of his best time.
• Sara Junevik won the women’s 50 backstroke in 29.20.
• Klara Thormalm won the women’s 100 breaststroke in 1:08.34, which is a best time by six-tenths of a second. She too competed in the American collegiate system, graduating from San Diego State earlier this year.