ROTTERDAM QUALIFICATION MEET (NED)
- Thursday, December 3rd – Sunday, December 6th
- Zwemcentrum Rotterdam, Netherlands
- LCM (50m)
- Olympic Qualifier/European Championships Qualifier
- Entries
- SwimSwam Meet Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
- Live Stream
The men’s 100m fly heats of this Rotterdam Qualification Meet already saw Switzerland’s Noe Ponti put up a new national record en route to capturing the top seed. However, 2nd-seeded Belgian swimmer Louis Croenen also nailed a new national standard in the prelims, hitting a time of 52.10 as the fastest man ever from his nation.
Entering this Olympic qualifying competition, Croenen’s personal best rested at the 52.59 he posted at the Hengelo Long Course Challenge earlier this year. That itself sat less than half a second away from the longstanding Belgian record of 52.22 Francois Heersbrandt logged at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Flash forward to this morning, however, and Croenen managed to slice .12 off of that record, splitting 24.40/27.70 in the process. He still has the final yet to come tonight, where the Belgian will try to overcome the FINA ‘A’ cut of 51.96 needed to qualify for the 2020 Olympic GAmes, postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus.
