Florine Gaspard Hits Belgian Record In 50 Free At Edinburgh International

2025 EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEET

The 2025 Edinburgh International Swim Meet kicked off today with a host of British swimmers contending with athletes stemming from Belgium, the Netherlands and beyond.

Wasting no time making her presence known already on day one was Florine Gaspard of Belgium who fired off a new national record in the women’s 50m freestyle.

After capturing the 2nd seed out of the heats with a morning swim of 25.01, 23-year-old Gaspard turned things up a notch in the final to post an outing of 24.53.

That garnered the Belgian the silver medal behind Dutch ace Milou van Wijk who touched first in 24.48, a new lifetime best for her by .22.

Bronze went to British 19-year-old Eva Okaro who hit 24.80, a new personal best by .11. Okaro, the World Junior Record holder in the SCM version of this event, now ranks as GBR’s 4th-fastest performer of all time, tying Amy Smith.

As for Gaspard, her national record entering this competition rested at the 24.65 notched in December 2023 so she sliced  .12 off that previous performance to register the new benchmark.

This trio of women has shaken up the world rankings, with van Wijk now taking over the #1 time in the world.

2024-2025 LCM Women 50 Free

2Meg
Harris
AUS24.6303/08
3Milou
van Wijk
NED24.7002/07
4Kasia
Wasick
POL24.7603/08
5Florine
GASPARD
BEL24.7702/07
6Simone
Manuel
USA24.7903/08
7Shayna
Jack
AUS24.9612/17
8Arina
SURKOVA
RUS24.9702/20
9Roos
VANOTTERDIJK
BEL25.0202/07
10Rylee
Erisman
USA25.0303/08
View Top 26»

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Dee
3 hours ago

With Angharad Evans switching from England to Scotland since moving to Stirling, that’s three Scottish women at 1.07.3 or faster so far this year. Could well sweep trials. Oli Morgan is well on track to go under 52.5 at trials; He has been .7 faster than 2024 at both BUCS and Edinburgh now.

Dee
Reply to  Dee
1 hour ago

Also, Eva Okaro is 18, she turns 19 in November. Hopeful she can take down Halsall’s age group mark (24.53) this year. Her twin sister, Izabella, is now right on the cusp of top 10 all time in the age group too – 25.6 today to make it half a second hacked off her PB so far in 2025.

phoebe
3 hours ago

jimmy guy looking back to his best again, gave richards a run for his money in the 200 FR

Cassandra
3 hours ago

these benelux sprinters are looking very ominous ahead of singapore, with steenbergens lcm form still sight unseen…

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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