Dutch & Swiss Among Nations Headed To Antwerp Diamond Race

2020 ANTWERP DIAMOND RACE

• Saturday, March 7th & Sunday, March 8th
• Wezenberg Pool, Antwerp, Belgium
• 50m (LCM)
• Meet Site

The 2020 Antwerp Diamond Race taking place in Belgium represents a 2020 Olympic Games qualifying competition. As such, we’ll be looking for quick swims from the Belgian, Swiss, Dutch, Danish and more headed to the Wezenberg Pool for the 2-day affair.

Among the entrants is Antonio Djakovic, the reigning 400m freestyle European Junior Champion. The 17-year-old Swiss standout will be contesting the men’s 1500m free during Saturday night’s finals but is also set to take on the 100m, 200m free and 400m free trifecta.

He’ll be joined by fellow youngster Kenzo Simons of the Netherlands in the 100m free, with the 18-year-old Dutch record holder taking on that event, as well as his signature 50m free.

Simons set a new World Junior Record in the short course 50 freestyle, taking it down to 20.98 while competing at the 2019 Dutch Short Course Championships last December.

Additional Dutchmen include Jesse Puts, Kyle Stolk, Maarten Brzoskowski, Arjan Knipping, Luc Kroon, and Arno Kamminga.

Among the women, Dutch speedster Femke Heemskerk‘s name is sprinkled across the board, and she’ll be joined by teammates Kira Toussaint, Tamara van Vliet, Valerie van Roon, Kim Busch, Maaike de Waard, Marrit Steenbergen, Tes Schouten, among others.

Belgian Olympic silver medalist from Rio, Pieter Timmers, is expected to race here in Antwerp in front of his home crowd, although just on day 1. Timmers is racing the 50m and 200m freestyle events on Saturday, but doesn’t appear on Sunday’s entry list.

Additional Belgian names of which to take note include Alexandre Marcourt, Lander Hendrickx, Louis Croenen.

Among the German racers are two-time European Junior Championships medalist Maya Tobehn and Jessica Steiger, while Denmark’s contingency includes Julie Jensen, Signe Bro, Emilie Beckmann, Tobias Bjerg, Mie Nielsen.