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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Burgeoning Norwegian freestyler Sander Sorensen established a new National Record last week, competing at the Asker Grand Prix (SCM) in Holmen, a village in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
Sorensen, 18, put up a time of 1:44.17 in the event to knock one one-hundredth of a second off the four-year-old Norwegian Record of 1:44.18 set by Tomoe Hvas at the 2021 Short Course World Championships.
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Coming into the meet, Sorensen held a SCM best time of 1:45.57, set in November 2023, which was only marginally faster than the long course National Record he set this past summer at the World Championships (1:45.78).
Split Comparison
| Hvas, 2021 | Sorensen, 2023 | Sorensen, 2025 |
| 24.55 | 24.98 | 24.47 |
| 50.94 (26.39) | 51.67 (26.69) | 50.68 (26.21) |
| 1:17.82 (26.88) | 1:18.77 (27.10) | 1:17.50 (26.82) |
| 1:44.18 (26.36) | 1:45.57 (26.80) | 1:44.17 (26.67) |
The performance ranks Sorensen the 23rd-fastest 18 & under European of all-time, and the third-fastest Nordic junior ever, only trailing Sweden’s Robin Hanson (1:43.74) and Estonian Kregor Zirk (1:43.84).
Sorensen also set best times in the 50 free (22.31), 100 free (48.29), 50 fly (23.95), 100 fly (52.97) and 200 fly (2:02.63) at the competition, earning him 27,500 NOK (2,400 Euros/$2731 USD).
This past summer at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, Sorensen set new Norwegian LC Records in the 100 free (48.65) and 200 free (1:45.78), placing 24th in the former and 9th in the latter, narrowly missing out on a spot in the final by 18 one-hundredths.
A few weeks earlier at the European Junior Championships in Samorin, Sorensen won bronze in the boys’ 200 free (1:47.47) and also placed 5th in the 100 free (49.08), 11th in the 100 fly (53.63) and 25th in the 50 free (23.27).
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