2015 AMSTERDAM CUP
- Friday, December 11- Sunday, 13th
- Sloterparkbad of Amsterdam (LCM)
- Prelims at 8:45am local/2:45am Eastern; Finals at 3:30pm local/9:30am Eastern
- Entry Lists
- Event Schedule
- Results
On the final preliminary session of the 2015 Amsterdam Cup, Femke Heemskerk made the team. She joins Inge Dekker on the women’s squad and Maarten Brzoskowski, who both qualified yesterday. Heemskerk was one of the most likely swimmers to make the team, and she didn’t need to swim anywhere near her own Dutch record to make it.
Tonight’s finals session will be the last chance at this meet for Sebastiaan Verschuren to punch his ticket to Rio. The two time Olympian came up just two tenths short in the 100 freestyle and now needs to improve his 200 freestyle by 1.5 seconds to make the Rio standard of 1:46.98.
Verschuren is surely capable, having gone a second faster this past summer in Kazan.
The morning was otherwise dominated by foreign competitors and featured a number of non-Olympic qualifying events. Adam Peaty was no surprise to qualify first in the 50 breaststroke, setting up another battle with Giedrus Titenis. However, given Peaty’s strength it’s hard to imagine that he could lose this race.
Israel’s Jonatan Kopelev qualified first in his best event, the 50 backstroke, but expect him to face a stiff challenge tonight from Camille Lacourt, who set a meet record yesterday in the 100. Israel once again piled swimmers into the backstroke final, with Guy Barnea and David Gamburg making it into the top 8.
Melania Costa made it first out of prelims again in the 200 backstroke. After a strong day yesterday, Mireia Belmonte barely dodged catastrophe, making it into the final with just .06 to spare over American Kate Mills.
Spain is overall making their mark on this competition, and that trend continued when Carlos Peralta qualified first in the 200 butterfly in 1:57.75. Expect Peralta to be challenged by Swiss national record holder Nils Liess in the final, as well as Britain’s Roberto Pavoni.
Aside from Heemskerk’s swim, tonight’s final could include some competition for relay spots on the Dutch 4×100 relay. While Ranomi Kromowidjojo is likely to be a part of that relay and is not at the competition, Maud van der Meer put up a 54.44 that could put her in play. Dekker is another veteran who could be there, with Marrit Steenbergen leading the next generation.
And Manaudou swam the 200 free prelims to, in fact, swim a 100 free at 100% and then stop.
He’s really unbearable!
49.27 (23.28/24.15)
Better than his 50.46 of day 1 but not very exciting. Even not much rested.
His Marseille teammates did the same.
Metella swam 49.58.
And Fredérick Bousquet swam a 50 free in 22.48.
hahaha well but at least that mentality makes your 4×100 free relay so strong!