Some of Germany’s fastest swimmers attended a competition in Essen, Germany, the “Swim & Fun Days” over the last weekend. Sarah Köhler, Fabian Schwingenschloegl, Christian Diener, Damian Wierling, Celine Rieder and Lisa Höpink started at the swim meet, held in a 50m long course pool.
The German Swimming Federation (DSV) has changed the qualifiying process for the big events in 2018 which are: the European LC Championships in Glasgow (GBR) in August, the World SC Championships in Hangzhou (CHN) in December: In contrast to the 2017 qualifying procedure, the swimmers can reach the nomination standards during a qualilification period, which will last from January 22nd to April 29th, 2018. The qualifying procedure in 2017 only allowed the athletes to qualify at the German National Championships for the LC World Championships and European SC World Championships. The swim meet in Essen last weekend was another chance for the swimmers to crack the nomination times but only in the long distance events (swimmers must stay under the required times in prelims) and the 50m freestyle (only 50m events were swum with prelims and finals).
It was Sarah Köhler who set a new 2018 world best time en route cracking the German qualification standard in the 1500 m freestyle. She was clocked at 16:04,57, clearly under the nomination cut of 16:20,98. Köhler returned from a high altitude training camp last thursday. Sarah Köhler is the 2017 European SC Champion in the 800m freestyle. She was the only German woman who reached a final at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, she finished 8th on the 800m freestyle. The fastest swimmer over the 1500m freestyle in 2018 so far was USA’s Ashley Twichell (16:08,70).
Sarah Köhler is now next to Damian Wierling (50m freestyle), Leonie Beck (800m freestyle) and Florian Wellbrock (1500m freestyle) the fourth German swimmer who have cracked the tough German nomination times for the European Championships.
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German Swimming Federation releases 2018 nomination guideline
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when this is event is added in Tokyo.
Great time by Sarah Köhler. Less than 5sec away from her personal best. It’s strange that we don’t see any Chinese swimmer ranked high this season. They are all around in 400 and 800. It is an Olympic event now.