2019 NORTH SEA SWIM MEET
- Friday, November 1st – Sunday, November 3rd
- Stavanger, Norway
- SCM
- Start List
- Results
The 2019 North Sea Swim Meet kicked off quietly tonight in Stavanger, Norway, where athletes from the host nation, as well as from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Finland and more took to the pool at the annual 3-day affair.
24-year-old Markus Lie of Norway led the way with 2 individual victories on the day, reaping gold across the men’s 200m IM and 50m back events. In the former, the World Championships swimmer stopped the clock in a time of 1:57.73 to represent 1 of 3 men under the 2:00 threshold in the final.
Runner-up status went to Dutchman Arjan Knipping in 1:58.01, while Finland’s Teemu Vuorela rounded out the top 3 in 1:58.45.
In the 50m back race, Lie touched in 24.25 to beat out Matthys Goosen‘s mark of 24.48 that took silver.
Swiss dynamo Maria Ugolkova nearly took down her own national record in the women’s 200m IM. She put up a winning effort of 2:08.71 to top the field handily by almost 4 seconds. Her time sits less than half a second outside her Swiss standard of 2:08.40 established at the 2017 Short Course European Championships.
Lucy Hope, visiting from Edinburgh, topped the women’s 50m back podium in a time of 27.40, while Finnish Olympian Ari-Pekka Liukkonen got it done in the men’s 50m free with a gold medal-worthy outing of 21.57. He owns the Finnish national record with the 21.20 he produced at the 2018 National Championships.
World Championships silver medalist in the 800m free, Henrik Christiansen of Norway, produced a winning time of 14:29.95 in the men’s 1500m free tonight. Christiansen is a member of the International Swimming League (ISL) squad Team Iron and competed in Budapest.
Additional Winners:
- Milou van Wijk of the Netherlands took the women’s 50m free in 25.04, while teammate Tes Schouten beat the 100m breast field in a time of 1:06.94.
- Jorgen Brathen topped the men’s 100m breast podium in 59.24.
- Scottish national record holder Tain Bruce secured her first medal here at North Sea by winning the women’s 20m fly in 2:11.19. Joeri Verlinden of the Netherlands collected gold in the men’s edition of the race, stopping the clock in 1:58.14.
- Marlene Rypestol controlled the women’s 800m free with her outing of 8:29.81.
