Thefinal day of the 2013 Eindhoven Swim Cup in the Netherlands saw a punctuation of four great days of swimming from some of the biggest names in Europe.
Georgia Davies stole the headlines (as you can see above) with a fantastic 100 backstroke. She swam a 59.97, making her the first European woman to go under a minute in 2013. Behind her in 2nd place was Dutch swimmer Sharon van Rouwendaal in 1:01.78.
In the other big race of the day, the women’s 100 free, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom picked up another event victory, winning in 53.66. That goes along with previous wins in the 100 fly and the 200 free.
Ranomi Kromowidjojo, the Olympic champion in the race and winner of the 50 free earlier in the meet, took 2nd in 53.83, and Femke Heemskerk was 3rd in 54.25.
Germany’s Britta Steffen took 5th in 55.00.
On the men’s side, the 50 free was won with a stellar 22.15 from Russia’s Sergey Fesikov, swimming under the banner of the ADN Swim Project. That’s already within two tenths of his lifetime best as he enters the prime of his career. His challenge will be peaking in the summer – last year, he was right around this time in April as well, but then didn’t even come close to it at the Olympics and missed semi-finaling.
His ADN teammate Andrey Govorov, a swimmer for the Ukraine, took 2nd in 22.28. The top-finishing swimmer from outside the ADN Project was Jasper van Mierlo in 3rd with a 22.54, followed by Sebastiaan Veraschuren in 22.66. Brazil’s Henrique Martins hasn’t had as good of a meet as some of his teammates; he placed 5th in 22.75.
Inge Dekker won the womens’ 50 fly in 26.53, followed by Great Britain’s Jemma Lowe in 26.99.
I wished Sjoestrom never went this fast in season, in order to blast it during the most important meet of the year.
That’s te same thing people said about Michigan this year and we see how that turned out.
not sure what you meant by that, but in 2011-2012 Sjoestrom swam incredibly fast in-season, only to have underwhelming swims (still fast, but you’d expect she’d have swum much faster) in 2011 Shanghai and 2012 London
Sarah was ill before London (Olympics). However, I think she had rested for the British trials meet. She and Jennie Johansson had been tweeting about being at altitude together just before the trials meet etc etc…the times they set at that meet were both their best of the year. I think Sarah’s 1.55.2 and 56.7 were about as much as we could have expected from her last year. Would have been 2 silvers!
i don’t think it is the same for an individual as a team (like Michigan). Michigan won based on some being faster than Big Tens, some the same, and some not as well but enough to win champs. With an indivual swimming well in season at most meets and then not dropping or adding on the International stage, then you don’t medal or win when maybe she could win or medal?!
Yes.
Also, I don’t think you can compare the level of competitiveness of NCAA to that of the World.
At the world stage, if you don’t swim at least as fast as your best in season time, you can say good bye to any medal. Just ask Sjoestrom.