2023 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR – BARCELONA
- Wednesday, May 17th & Thursday, May 18th
- Club Natació Sant Andreu, Barcelona, Spain
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Qualifier
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Entries/Live Results
- Livestream
Just one national record bit the dust on day one of the Mare Nostrum Tour stop in Barcelona, Spain and it fell at the hands of Belgium’s Valentine Dumont.
Competing in the women’s 400m free this evening, 22-year-old Dumont snagged silver in a time of 4:08.81. That rendered her the runner-up behind Ella Jansen of Canada who beat the field in 4:08.28 while Hungarian Olympian Boglarka Kapas rounded out the podium in a bronze medal-worthy 4:10.20.
As for Dumont, her effort here overtakes her previous lifetime best and Belgian standard of 4:09.41 logged nearly 3 years ago at the 2020 Sette Colli Trophy.
Splits for Dumont’s first time ever under the 4:09 threshold include the following:
While Dumont was on a 400m free national record-breaking tear spanning 2016-2020, she had been in standby mode since the 2020 Sette Colli Trophy. She dropped the Belgian standard down from 4:15.98 in 2016 to the aforementioned 4:09.41 in 2020 but held steady with a best of 4:09.92 in 2021 followed by a best of 4:10.51 from last year.
As such, Dumont’s 4:08.81 here is a breakthrough performance.
Year-by-Year Progression, Valentine Dumont, Women’s 400 Free:
- 2016 – 4:15.98
- 2017 – 4:12.71
- 2018 – 4:11.12 (National Record)
- 2019 – 4:10.72 (National Record)
- 2020 – 4:09.41 (National Record)
- 2021 – 4:09.92
- 2022 – 4:10.51
- 2023 – 4:08.81 (National Record)
