2023 NORTH SEA SWIM MEET (NOR)
- Friday, October 27th – Sunday, October 29th
- Stavanger, Norway
- SCM (25m)
- Start List
- Results
The 50th edition of the annual North Sea Swim Meet concluded over the weekend, with action wrapping up last night from Stavanger, Norway.
While there were indeed visiting athletes sprinkled in, to the tune of Kira Toussaint and Thom de Boer of the Netherlands, as well as David Cumberlidge of Great Britain, domestic swimmer Nicholas Lia stole the spotlight on several occasions.
22-year-old Lia topped the men’s 50m freestyle final in a time of 21.72, beating out Olympic finalist de Boer by just .03. Cumberlidge rounded out the top 3 in 22.10.
Later in the meet during the superfinal of the men’s 50m free, Lia found himself on the end of a gold medal once again. He registered a time of 21.14, a new lifetime best. That overwrote his own former Norwegian national record of 21.29 put up at the 2021 edition of the Baerum Open.
Lia also grabbed gold in the 50m fly and 100m free events, scoring 23.72 and 47.77, respectively.
Toussaint was another multi-event winner, making her presence known in both the freestyle and backstroke disciplines. The 29-year-old produced a time of 26.99 to win the women’s 50m back and doubled up with a mark of 58.22 to take the 100m distance by more than 2 seconds.
Toussaint also won the 100m free in a result of 53.93, the 9th-quickest performance of her career.
She also touched in 24.38 in the 50m free super final, as well as 56.88 in the 100m back super final.
