Rotterdam Qual Meet Day 1: Seemanova Fires Off 1:55.59 200 Free, Wiffen Tops 1500 Heats

2023 ROTTERDAM QUALIFICATION MEET

• Thursday, November 30th – Sunday, December 3rd
• Zwemcentrum Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• LCM (50m)
• 2024 World Championships and 2024 Olympic qualifying competition
• Entries
• SwimSwam Preview
• Live Results
• Livestream

The 2023 Rotterdam Qualification Meet kicked off today from the Netherlands with the competition representing a selection opportunity for Dutch swimmers to earn World Championships and Olympic berths.

Along with a strong domestic contingent, swimmers are visiting from Great Britain, Spain and beyond.

To kick things off, Olympic champion Tom Dean (GBR) grabbed the gold in the men’s 200m freestyle by the narrowest of margins.

The 23-year-old Bath-based ace produced a time of 1:47.50 to get to the wall just .01 ahead of Cesar Castro Valle of Spain who settled for silver in 1:47.51.

Two other men also got under the 1:48 barrier, with Saso Boskan of Slovenia posting 1:47.62 as the bronze medalist and Austria’s Felix Auboeck touching in 1:47.88 for the 4th place finish. Boskann’s outing represents a new personal best and new national record.

The women’s 200m free saw Barbora Seemanova put her own Czech Republic national record on notice en route to topping the podium.

The 23-year-old logged a winning result of 1:55.59, falling just .14 shy of her fastest-ever time of 1:55.45. That record was put on the books when she placed 6th in the event at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Dutch Olympian Marrit Steenbergen was less than a second behind with a mark of 1:56.19 as tonight’s silver medalist. Valentine Dumont of Belgium rounded out the top 3 performers in a time of 1:58.45.

The trio all dipped under the 1:58.66 benchmark needed to qualify for the 2024 World Championships while both Seemanova and Steenbergen cleared the 1:57.26 Olympic Qualification Time needed for Paris.

Seemanova now ranks 2nd in the world this season, sitting only behind Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey.

Olympic medalist Luke Greenbank was also in the water tonight for Great Britain, making some noise in his pet event of the men’s 200m backstroke.

The Loughborough swimmer produced a solid morning outing of 1:57.88 to take the top seed out of the heats before putting up a quicker 1:56.94 to ultimately take the gold.

In fact, the entire podium hailed from GBR, as Commonwealth Games champion Brodie Williams snagged silver in 1:57.74 and Cameron Brooker bagged bronze in 1:58.57.

Greenbank owns the British national record in this event with the 1:54.43 he hit at the 2021 European Championships. His effort this evening now ranks him 7th in the world.

Imogen Clark was another standout British star, taking on the women’s 50m breaststroke. The national record holder stopped the clock in 30.30 to get the job done, although she was slightly faster in the morning heats with a time of 30.20.

She owns the British standard at the 30.02 she turned in for silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Clark’s morning result here inserts her in the 5th slot on this season’s world rankings.

Irishman Daniel Wiffen was the top swimmer by far in the men’s 1500m freestyle hets but his twin brother Nathan Wiffen is on the prowl.

D. Wiffen earned lane 4 in 14:55.60 followed by N. Wiffen who touched nearly 20 seconds later in 15:24.88. Norway’s Henrik Christiansen posted 15:25.74 as the 3rd placed prelims swimmer.

D. Wiffen already owns the top times in the world in the SCM 400, 800 and 1500 freestyle events. He’s now the 3rd-swiftest performer in the world in this LCM 1500 free.

Additional Notes

• Canadian Kylie Masse reaped the victory in the women’s 200m back in a time of 2:09.79, the sole outing of the field under 2:10.
• Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands got under the World Championships qualifying time in the men’s 50m breast, registering 27.01 for gold. Teammate Koen de Groot was at the wall next in 27.04 and Germany’s Lucas Matzerath also landed on the podium in 27.26. Norway’s Nicholas Lia was disqualified and Great Britain’s Olympic champion Adam Peaty was entered in the event but did not swim. James Wilby (GBR) placed 11th in the morning heats in 28.14
• The men’s 200m fly saw Ondrej Gemov of the Czech Republic come away with gold in 1:57.40 while Germany’s Alina Baievych hit a time of 2:11.56 as the women’s gold medalist. Of note, GBR’s Jacob Peters was disqualified in the men’s race and Spanish Olympic champion Mireia Belmonte was entered in the women’s contest but did not dive in. Germany’s David Thomasberger also opted out of the men’s edition.
• Angela Martinez Guillen of Spain was the winner of the women’s 1500m free in 16:30.78 this evening.