2019 BELGIAN OPEN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, November 9th & Sunday, November 10th
- Lago Gent Rozebroeken, Gent, Belgium
- SCM
- SwimSwam Preview
- Start Lists
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
Two individual Belgian national records bit the dust on day 2 of the Open Short Course Championships, one on the women’s side and one on the men’s.
For the women, it was Valentine Dumont who turned heads in the 400m freestyle, firing off a winning effort of 4:04.55 to knock down a Belgian record that’s been on the books for a remarkable 18 years. Splitting 1:00.01, 1:03.69, 1:01.88, 58.97 tonight in Gent, 19-year-old Dumont’s 4:04.55 winning effort overtook the previous mark of 4:08.24 set by Sofie Griffin way back at the 2001 European Championships.
Dumont’s time dips under the 4:05.34 minimum standard needed to qualify for this year’s European Short Course Championships in Glasgow, giving the teen her 2nd event, paired with the 200m free from last night.
She also raced the 100m free tonight, but her winning result of 53.99 fell shy of the 53.61 needed for Glasgow qualification.
As for the men, it was Lander Hendrickx who busted out the fastest time of his career to take the men’s 200m back in a new Belgian national record. Hitting the wall tonight in 1:53.75, Hendrickx’s podium-topping swim (55.59/58.16) easily got under the previous national mark of 1;54.73 registered by Emmanuel Vanluchen 6 years ago.
Even with a national record under his belt, Hendrickx’s 1:53.75 time falls outside of the 1:53.16 needed to add this event outright to his 400m free qualification, although he may get the discretionary nod since he’s already on the roster.
Olympic silver medalist Pieter Timmers snagged a victory in the 50m free in 21.30, sneaking under the 21.47 QT to add the event to his 100m free qualification from last night.
