Toussaint & Corbeau Fuel Dutch Resurgance At European SC Championships

2023 EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• December 5-10, 2023
• Otopeni Olympic Swimming Complex, Bucharest, Romania
• Short Course Meters (25 meters)
• Prelims 2:30am (ET), Finals 11am (ET)
• Entries Book
• Live Results (Omega)
• Live Results (Microplus Timing)
• Eurovision Sport Livestream
• Day 1 Prelims Recap | Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap | Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Recap
• Day 4 Prelims Recap | Day 4 Finals Recap
• Day 5 Prelims Recap |Day 5 Finals Recap

Although Great Britain and France remain as the top two nations in the swimming medal table through day five of the 2023 European Short Course Championships, the Netherlands frog-hopped Sweden to now rank third on the penultimate night of action.

29-year-old Dutch Olympian Kira Toussaint was responsible for one of the nation’s golds this evening.

Toussaint logged a time of 55.88 to win the women’s 100m backstroke in the only sub-56 outing of the field. She successfully defended her European Short Course title from the 2021 edition where she topped the podium in 55.76. Toussaint also took the 50m and 200m back golds there in Kazan.

Toussaint’s time tonight sits just outside the top 10 performances of her career but marks her quickest result in 2 years and fastest since returning to the University of Tennessee.

She had been working towards the Olympics at the High Performance Center in Amsterdam but, in September of last year, revealed she would be returning to her college alma mater through the 2024 Olympic Games while also working as a volunteer assistant with the collegiate program.

Dutch teammates Caspar Corbeau and Arno Kamminga also added to the nation’s medal haul this evening. 22-year-old Corbeau scorched a lifetime best of 2:02.41 to win the men’s 200m breaststroke. Iceland’s Anton McKee snagged silver in 2:02.74 while Kamminga, the men’s 100m breast victor here, earned bronze in 2:03.32.

For Corbeau, the former University of Texas Longhorn’s previous career-best in this event rested at the 2:04.17 put up in October of 2022, rendering tonight’s performance nearly 2 seconds swifter en route to this first international gold.

Corbeau, too, changed up his training relatively recently. He returned to his native Netherlands late this summer, forgoing a fifth year of NCAA eligibility in order to train under Mark Faber, also Kamminga’s coach, in the run-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Other racers in the water tonight who recently made training moves were the top two finishers of the men’s 200m freestyle.

Matthew Richards, who added the 2free title tonight to his long course World Championships title in the same event from Fukuoka, moved from Bath to Millfield last year. Runner-up James Guy then joined him just a few months ago.

As for Guy, his silver medal-worthy time of 1:41.12 tonight established a new lifetime best for the 28-year-old, erasing his former PB of 1:42.11 from 2019. Additionally, his medal in Romania marked his first 200m free podium placement at a major elite international meet since earning bronze at the 2016 European LC Championships.