Philip Heintz blasts World’s #1 200 IM on day 2,German Championships

German National Championships and World Championships Trials

Philip Heintz set a new German record in the 200m IM during morning heats with a time of 1:56,59. And then he improved the record to 1:55,76 in the final. What a day for the 26-year old swimmer!

His split times: 00:25,38 00:55,42 01:28,20 01:55,76
(25,38, 30,04, 32,78, 27,56)

He now is the number one in the world in this season:

2016-2017 LCM MEN 200 IM

ChaseUSA
KALISZ
07/27
1.55.56
2Phillip
HEINTZ
GER1.55.7606/16
3Kosuke
HAGINO
JPN1.56.0107/27
4Wang
SHUN
CHN1.56.1604/14
5Max
LITCHFIELD
GBR1.56.6407/26
View Top 26»

 

Heintz has been the fastest German 200m IM swimmer SC und LC over the last years: He won gold at the 2013 SC European Championships, silver two years later and also silver at the 2016 SC World Championships. In 2014, he also was successful on a 50m course with a silver medal at the European Championships.

The 26-old finished sixth at the 2016 Olympic Games in the 200 IM in 1:57,48 and wasn’t satisfied with this result and thought about hanging up the speedos but fortunately he decided to continue his sports career until the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Heintz said at the opening press conference on wednesday that he changed his training and swam less meters (5.500 instead of 7000 per training unit), but worked on his speed in practice with more sets in race pace.

Philip Heintz is a real “Mr. Sunshine”, he always smiles, is relaxed and in a good mood  but he is a very focused athlete who concentrates on his races and he is experienced enough to work on the details with his coach Dr. Michael Spikermann. Heintz trains at the German federal training center in Heidelberg.

Video YouTube courtesy of JDizzlebro

 

 

 

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john26
7 years ago

Heintz posts a time +1.76 to the WR, and this gets almost as much attention as Sjostrom challenging the Campbell WR.

This is a testament to the strength of the 200IM WR. If we saw +1.76 on men’s 200breast, 200back, women’s 200breast, we’d barely blink an eye.

sven
Reply to  john26
7 years ago

Also to the sheer magnitude of the vacuum Phelps and Lochte (for now) have left behind. Just last week, I wrote a comment stating that unless someone has a huge breakthrough soon, Hagino is a sure bet for gold in the 200 IM in Budapest and Tokyo. Suddenly, it happens and Hagino is gonna have a real fight on his hands.

Captain Awesome
Reply to  sven
7 years ago

I feel like the progression of the world (apart from the top few) had stagnated in the last decade or so. Phelps and Lochte pushed the game so far ahead but we’re getting to the point where not only are people stepping up to succeed them but I think the times to make semis and finals are going to be a lot harder in the next few years.

MTK
Reply to  Captain Awesome
7 years ago

Ya, it was pretty frequent where Phelps and Lochte were in the 1:54s and everyone else was 1:57/1:58. Now we’re seeing more guys putting up 1:55/1:56. I’m not sure that they can get to the WR, but from a DEPTH standpoint, the event has come a long way, and it may not be too long until 1:57.00 may be what it takes to make finals at WAC/Olympics.

MTK
Reply to  john26
7 years ago

Ya, it’s because those two have so thoroughly dominated the race since 2003, with only Hagino putting up a time that could challenge their frequent 1:54s. There have been other events where a swimmer has been a frequent winner in the last 10ish years (Kitajima- 200br, Peirsol/Lochte- 200bk, Phelps- 200fly), but the gap between them and their closest competitors was typically much smaller than it was in the Phelps/Lochte era of 200IM.

IMs for days
7 years ago

He is now the fastest ever european in textile. He split:
25.38/55.42(30.04)/1:28.20(32.78)/1:55.76(27.56)
For comparison Hagino split
24.43/52.86(28.43)/1:26.94(34.08)/1:55.07(28.13)
Lochte Split
24.89/53.48(28.59)/1:26.51(33.03)/1:54.00(27.49)
And Cseh, the former fastest european in textile, split this in his textile best
25.03/54.85(29.82)/1:27.96(33.11)/1:56.22(28.26)
It seems that his weakest strokes are butterfly and backstroke, while he is very strong in the breast and free, actually swimming his second half faster than lochte did in his world record. This is a very different IMer than we have gotten used to with the likes of phelps, lochte and hagino, who all are very fast on the front half.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  IMs for days
7 years ago

Excellent comparison u brought on the table , specially the splits . Great job

swimsammmer
Reply to  IMs for days
7 years ago

Coming home in 1:00.34 is absurd

MTK
Reply to  swimsammmer
7 years ago

Absolutely. Has anyone ever been sub 33 on breast AND sub 28 on free? Phelps and Lochte’s best performances were 33low and 27low/mid, never really hitting 32.xx on breast.

sven
Reply to  IMs for days
7 years ago

Just for fun, adding up Hagino’s first 100, Heintz’s breast, and Lochte’s free nets a 1:53.13.

Not too shabby.

Meanwhile, for no reason other than boredom and a desire to crank up the absurdity another notch:

add up Cavic’s first 50 fly from 2009: 22.69
Piersol’s 26.59 back-half from 2009
Peaty’s 30.52 back-half from Rio
and Maggie’s 24.42 back-half from 2012

and we have a 1:44.22 200 IM, ladies and gentlemen. I could have missed some of the best splits, too. For example, I couldn’t find Lezak’s back-half split from Beijing, so it’s possible that this hypothetical IMer could be faster.

Now we just need to clone Phelps and/or Lochte, train them from birth under optimal… Read more »

Mike
Reply to  sven
7 years ago

Chalmers came back on 24.21 on the heats of the 100 free I believe.

phelps swims 200 breast rio
Reply to  sven
7 years ago

Awesome!

Caleb
7 years ago

It’s unavoidable to take a pause when we see a 26 y/o suddenly make a massive drop and swim so fast. Did he battle injury the past few years? I hope no suspicion is warranted and for now will only say, congratulations; the 200 IM looks like a great race at worlds with at least 5 serious contenders to win.

Captain Awesome
Reply to  Caleb
7 years ago

If you read the article you’d have seen that he stated the other day that’s he’s changed his training program in this last year.

Caleb
Reply to  Captain Awesome
7 years ago

I read the article and it’s well and good… maybe new training explains the drop.

suzzie2012
Reply to  Caleb
7 years ago

How about this being another confirmation that the days of yardage (7k per practice) are gone? More training at race pace.

Caleb
Reply to  Caleb
7 years ago

that’s a lot of downvotes for something I’m sure crossed a lot of minds. I guess etiquette is we don’t say it out loud. Whisper whisper.

re evaluate.
Reply to  Caleb
7 years ago

No, not at all. Its just this suspicion that any athlete outside of the U.S. who achieves success is doping. Just because there was a large time drop and they aren’t Americans should not mean that they have to be put under any more scrutiny. This is just sad.

Billabong
7 years ago

Wow. That puts him in pole position for Worlds. Hagino has battle on his hands!

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Billabong
7 years ago

If Lochte was back , it would be a great final

Uberfan
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
7 years ago

This shouldn’t be getting downvoted dude tore his groin and went a 1:56.22 and was a 1:55.81 in Kazan Lochte is still crazy good

CROOKED HILLARY
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
7 years ago

Lochte just retired after that.