2023 FINNISH OPEN GRAND PRIX
- Saturday, November 4th & Sunday, November 5th
- Espoo, Finland
- SCM (25m)
- Results
The 2023 Finnish Open Grand Prix concluded over the weekend, with several Finnish and Swedish stars in the mix for medals at the two-day short course competition.
Among them was Olympic bronze medalist Matti Mattsson of Finland, with the 30-year-old dabbling in his signature breaststroke discipline.
Mattsson won the 100m and 200m distances decisively, registering times of 58.41 and 2:06.84, respectively.
In the shorter event, Mattsson’s outing came within half a second of the Finnish national record, one which stands at the 58.04 Olli Kokko put on the books at the 2022 World Championships.
In the longer race, Mattsson owns the national record in his lifetime best of 2:04.63 notched at the 2019 Finnish Championships.
Teammate Laura Lahtinen was a multi-event winner on the women’s side, including in the 100m free, 200m free and 100m fly.
Lahtinen produced a time of 55.01 to take the 100m free, splitting 26.56/28.45 in the process. That came within striking distance of her lifetime best of 54.64, while her 200m free time of 1:57.72 that earned gold indeed scored a new PB. Her previous career-quickest entering this competition rested at the 1:57.72 produced at this same meet last year.
The 100m fly was another podium-topper for Lahtinen where she nabbed the gold in 56.88.
Swedish ace Victor Johansson put on a show in the men’s trio of the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle races. He hit times of 1:45.84, 3:39.82 and 7:33.01, respectively, with the 25-year-old busting out PB’s in the 200m and 800m.
Johansson’s previous top times included 1:46.00 in the 200m free from 2016 and 7:44.50 in the 800m free from 2017 so the 25-year-old logged two of his best short course times in well over 5 years. His 800m free hacked over 10 seconds en route to registering a new Swedish national record
Just like that, Johansson now ranks as the #1 swimmer in the world in both the 400m and 800m free events, supplanting Hungary’s Zalan Sarkany in the process.
2023-2024 SCM Men 400 Free
WIFFEN
3:35.47
| 2 | Danas RAPSYS | LTU | 3:37.80 | 12/05 |
| 3 | Lucas HENVEAUX | FRA | 3:37.91 | 12/05 |
| 4 | Antonio DJAKOVIC | SUI | 3:38.01 | 12/05 |
| 5 | Marco DE TULLIO | ITA | 3:38.13 | 12/05 |
2023-2024 SCM Men 800 Free
WIFFEN
7:20.46 WR
| 2 | David AUBRY | FRA | 7:30.32 | 12/10 |
| 3 | Mykhailo ROMANCHUK | UKR | 7:31.20 | 12/10 |
| 4 | Victor Johansson | SWE | 7:33.01 | 11/05 |
| 5 | Sven Schwarz | GER | 7:34.05 | 11/18 |
A hot contender for Euro Champs medals in 400, 800 and 1500 free!
daddy
where is Johansson training these days?
With his club team in Jonkoping, Sweden.
Explain, Snark Guy. Athlete currently with Maurer’s squad leads NCAA ranks in SCY equivalent events (Krzysztof Chmielewski).
If you think Chmielewski’s distance success was achieved under his short tenure with Maurer rather than his home training in Poland you’re kidding yourself. We shall wait and see if he gets faster under her regime throughout the season.
The Lea Maurer Effect
What I understand Victor trained previous month here in Finland, living in high altitude rooms and training in “normal” altitude pool
Victor swam at Alabama last year and has trained in Sweden since the summer
probably has an interesting perspective on the coaching staffs at USC/Bama
The training at USC didn’t suit him well, but at Alabama he was allowed more freedom to train like he did in Sweden. Unfortunately, he got sick for both short course worlds and NCAA and then he had an accident in the spring which ruined his summer season.
Nope, the Niko Martikainen Effect!🇫🇮
Based on a Podcast interview, I don’t think he has swum with USC coaches since March 2022.