2023 EINDHOVEN QUALIFICATION MEET
- April 6th – April 10th
- Eindhoven, the Netherlands
- LCM (50m)
- Results
19-year-old Dutchman Koen de Groot edged out national record holder Arno Kamminga for the men’s 50-meter breaststroke title at the 2023 Eindhoven Qualification meet on Thursday.
De Groot, the reigning Euro Juniors silver medalist in the event, shaved nearly half a second off his previous-best 27.61 from Peru with a winning time of 27.16, ducking under the 2023 Fukuoka World Championship ‘A’ cut of 27.33. He now ranks eighth in the world this season.
2022-2023 LCM Men 50 Breast
Haiyang
26.20
| 2 | Ilya Shymanovich | BLR | 26.28 | 04/06 |
| 3 | Nic Fink | USA | 26.59 | 07/26 |
| 4 | Sun Jiajun | CHN | 26.61 | 05/06 |
| 5 | Nicolo Martinenghi | ITA | 26.64 | 07/25 |
The 27-year-old Kamminga reached the wall just a couple tenths behind de Groot with a time of 27.37, just off his season-best 27.18 from last month. Kamminga’s personal best is a 26.80 from the Eindhoven meet in 2021.
The only other swimmer besides de Groot to hit a Worlds ‘A’ cut was 23-year-old Marrit Steenbergen, who won the women’s 200 freestyle in 1:56.22. That’s the 10th-fastest time this season according to our rankings, dropping .14 seconds off her previous best from last August’s gold medal effort at the European Championships. Imani de Jong placed second behind Steenbergen with a 1:58.85, just barely missing the ‘A’ cut of 1:58.66 by a couple tenths.
A couple swimmers were less than half a second away from ‘A’ cuts. Jan Cejka triumphed in the men’s 200 back with a time of 1:58.65, not far off the Worlds standard of 1:58.07. The 21-year-old Czech swimmer was almost two full seconds slower than his national record of 1:56.66 from the 2021 European Championships. In the women’s 50 breast, 22-year-old Anne Palmans (31.43) beat 21-year-old Julia Titze (31.63) by just two tenths, just off the Worlds ‘A’ cut of 1:58.07.
Other Day 1 Winners
- 20-year-old Dutchman Sean Niewold kicked off the meet with a victory in the men’s 200 free, improving on his lifetime best by more than three seconds with a 1:49.36. His progression over the past couple years has been impressive as his previous best was a 1:52.65 from two weeks ago; before then, it was a 1:57.34 from the Eindhoven meet in 2021.
- 20-year-old Lotte Hosper won the women’s 200 back with a 2:14.92, a couple seconds off her personal-best 2:12.42 from the Rotterdam Qualification meet last December. She was nearly four seconds off the Worlds ‘A’ cut of 2:11.08.
- 23-year-old Ondrej Gemov took the men’s 200 fly title with a time of 1:57.64, a few tenths off his personal-best 1:57.32 from last August’s European Championships. He was less than a second shy of the Worlds ‘A’ cut of 1:56.71.
- 29-year-old Portuguese swimmer Ana Catarina Monteiro went 2:11.35 to win the women’s 200 fly, a few seconds off her national record (2:08.03) from the 2018 European Championships. Femke Spiering was the top Dutch finisher in the event, shaving nearly a full second off her previous-best 2:12.94 from March of 2020 with a 2:12.03.
Good to see young talent knocking the established order off the throne.
Koen de Groot is currently one of the greatest swimming talents in the Netherlands. He broke records in breaststroke in recent years, but was not seen as a threatening competitor due to his young age
Arno Kamminga did not see his defeat coming and was pleasantly surprised, just looking at his facial expression after seeing the result.
My hope is that trainer Geert Janssen(junior national coach) will receive more sufficient resources to further develop Koen de Groot.
At the moment there is no healthy competition because Mark Faber(trainer/national coach), in collaboration with Arno, is getting more (financial) resources to develop.
Way to go Koen!
Diogo Cancela, from Louzan Natação/ Efapel, competing for the portuguese team, went a S8 WR in the 200m fly with a 2’15.50 in the finals, over 3 seconds under the previous world record
Jan Cejka isn’t Dutchman, he is from Czech Republic