Roos Vanotterdijk Clocks 2:08.42 To Shatter Belgian 200 IM Record At Toronto World Cup

by Sean Griffin 0

October 25th, 2025 International, News, Records

2025 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – Toronto

Women’s 200 IM — Prelims

Top 8: 

  1. Alex Walsh (USA) — 2:05.59
  2. Ellen Walshe (IRL) — 2:06.39
  3. Abbie Wood (GBR) — 2:06.89
  4. Rebecca Meder (RSA) — 2:07.08
  5. Ella Ramsay (AUS) — 2:07.60
  6. Phoebe Bacon (USA) — 2:07.95
  7. Roos Vanotterdijk (BEL) — 2:08.42
  8. Freya Colbert (GBR) — 2:08.47

During the final preliminary session of the 2025 World Cup in Toronto, Roos Vanotterdijk produced a new Belgian national record in the women’s 200 IM.

The 20-year-old stopped the clock in 2:08.42, which not only shattered her October 2024 best time of 2:14.75 but also took down Kimberly Buys‘ longstanding national mark of 2:09.27, set back in 2009.

Taking third in heat three, Vanotterdijk qualified seventh for the final after leading by four tenths at the halfway mark, before being overtaken on breaststroke by Team USA’s Alex Walsh, who won the event at the first two legs, and South Africa’s Rebecca Meder.

Vanotterdijk split 26.82/31.49/38.61/31.50 en route to setting the new standard, and compared to her previous PB splits of 27.93/33.94/40.40/32.48, she improved by over a second on fly, almost 2.5 seconds on backstroke, just under two seconds on breaststroke, and almost a full second on freestyle. Splits are not available for Buys’ 2009 record-setting swim.

This wasn’t the only time Vanotterdijk hit the pool this morning, as she also qualified sixth into the final of the 100 fly, an event in which she has taken bronze at the previous two legs of the World Cups in Carmel and Westmont. She is slated to swim in both events during tonight’s finals session, with the two races scheduled to take place 54 minutes apart. This is the first meet of the season where she has opted to take on the 200 IM.

Earlier in the meet, Vanotterdijk was third in the 100 IM and fourth in the 50 fly, also events she grabbed third in at the first two legs of the circuit.

With this new 200 IM record, she now holds a whopping 13 Belgium records, seven in short course meters and six in long course meters.

Vanooterdijk’s Belgian Records:

Time Date
100 free (SCM) 52.61 11/02/2024
50 fly (SCM) 25.32 12/14/2024
100 fly (SCM) 55.64 10/12/2025
50 back (SCM) 26.43 10/17/2025
100 back (SCM) 56.78 11/10/2024
100 IM (SCM) 57.41 10/17/2025
200 IM (SCM) 2:08.42 10/25/2025
100 free (LCM) 53.62 04/14/2025
50 fly (LCM) 25.32 08/01/2025
100 fly (LCM) 55.84 07/28/2025
50 back (LCM) 27.67 07/30/2025
100 back (LCM) 58.97 02/08/2025
200 IM (LCM) 2:09.73 06/14/2025

Vanotterdijk is building on the momentum of a standout 2025 season, which saw her break through with two individual medals at the Long Course World Championships: a silver in the 100 fly (55.84) and a bronze in the 50 fly (25.32). Her 100 fly silver on day two marked Belgium’s first World Championships medal since 1998, seven years before she was born.

This is her second season training with high-profile coach Mark Faber, who took over as the head of the Flemish Swimming Federation last November.

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