Heemskerk Stakes Claim On 50 Free OLY Berth With 24.28 Lifetime Best

EINDHOVEN QUALIFICATION MEET (NED)

• • April 8th – April 11th
  • Prelims at 9:30am local/Finals at 4:30pm local
  • Pieter van den Hoogenband Stadium
  • Olympic Selection Policy
  • One of several OLY qualifying opportunities
  • SwimSwam Preview
  • Live Results
  • Live Stream

Dutch Olympian Femke Heemskerk dropped the hammer in the women’s 50m freestyle prelims this morning in Eindhoven, with the sprint ace scorching a personal best time of 24.28 to lead the field.

Heemskerk’s Olympic berth in this splash n’ dash is on the line, with the veteran having to beat Valerie van Roon and her 24.63 tentative Olympic-qualifying mark. So far she has accomplished the feat, with 24.28 a tough mountain for van Roon to climb considering 24.63 represents her career-best.

You can read more on the background of their qualification situation. in our SwimSwam Preview link above.

Entering this meet, Heemskerk’s lifetime best in this 50m free rested at the 24.54 she established on the World Cup circuit back in 2018. That outing rendered her as the Netherlands’ 6th fastest woman in history.

However, with her 24.28 head-turner this morning, Heemskerk now frog hops the likes of Hinkelien Schreuder and Inge Dekker to rank as the 4th fastest Dutch woman in history. She just has to hang on to ensure that van Roon doesn’t capture a quicker time in the final tonight.

Bigger picture-wise, Heemskerk now sits just outside the top 20 performers worldwide all-time, while her outing here inserts Heemskerk into slot #5 among the season’s world rankings, tying Olympic champion Pernille Blume of Denmark.