2020 SPEEDO CUP – FINLAND
- Saturday, September 19th & Sunday, September 20th
- Espoonlahti, Espoo, Finland
- LCM (50m)
- Results
Finnish Olympians Ari-Pekka Liukkonen and Jenna Laukkanen competed domestically over the weekend, taking on the Speedo Cup in Espoo.
For 31-year-old Liukkonen, the man had competed post-coronavirus pandemic in August while this meet here represented 25-year-old Laukkanen’s first foray into the pool in several months.
Liukkonen took on the 50m fly, 100m free and 50m free events, the latter of which is his specialty and the race in which he placed 23rd in Rio.
After posting a time of 24.76 for gold in the 50m fly here in Espoo, along with 50.75 to claim 100m free victory, Liukkonen came painstakingly close to hitting the FINA ‘A’ qualifying time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in the splash n’ dash. The veteran hit the wall in a time of 22.15 to win the 50m free event by well over a second, but sit .14 outside the 22.01 FINA cut, at least for now.
Laukkanen will also have work to do in her signature 100m breast event, as she punched a time here of 1:09.66 to represent the only swimmer under 1:11 in her first race back. She owns a lifetime best of 1:07.35 from her prelim in Rio but will need to get even quicker to hit the 1:07.07 FINA ‘A’ cut in the event.
Think Finland already have at least 1 female swimmer under the A-cut in the 100m Breaststroke – Ida Hulkko