Pernille Blume Swims #2 50 Free Time in the World at Danish Open

2017 Danish Open

• April 1-5, 2017
• Bellahoj Swimming Stadium
• Qualifying Standards for Summer Championships
• World Championship Qualifying Standards
• First of two qualifying meets, followed by Stockholm Open in a week.
• Live results

Pernille Blume struck again on day 3 of the 2017 Danish Open, winning her 2nd event. This time, it was her best race, the 50 free, where last summer she made her mark internationally with Olympic gold. On Monday, Blume touched in 24.14.

That time moves her up to 2nd in the world in the 2016-2017 season, behind only Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom who swam a 24.01 in January.

As encouraging as Blume’s post-Olympic encore was, the depth was not there for the Danes. With no Jeanette Ottesen, and Mie Nielsen choosing to focus on the backstrokes and relay-bound 400, the second-best Dane in this race was Julie Kepp Jensen in 25.62 – a second-and-a-half behind Blume.

Speaking of Nielsen, she won the 100 back in 1:00.25. That time is slower than the 59.9 that she swam to win last year’s Danish Open, but was still easily under the World Championships time standard.

Other notable swims on Monday:

• Viktor Bromer won the 50 fly in 24.66 – which is outside of the Worlds selection criteria. He’s already earned his spot on the team for Budapest, though, and could still get an optional entry in this race.
• Katrine Bukh Villesen won the women’s 200 IM in 2:17.89, which si a new Danish Record for the 17-year old. The time cleared a few tenths under the old mark of 2:18.12 done by Amalie Emma Thomsen in 2009.