Daniela Kasper contributed this report:
On Saturday and Sunday, Germany’s swimming league „1. Bundesliga“ had it’s final event in Essen for women and men. German national team championships are an event for German swim clubs – each club must swim the Olympic program over three sessions (two on Saturday, one on Sunday) but there are no relays. Every swimmer is only allowed to swim in 5 different single events – but it is important to score in each event and not to scratch some. Because of that format, Marco Koch, silver medalist in the 200 breast at the SC World Championships in Doha 2014, swam a 200 fly, going 1:56,02 and a 200 IM, going 1:56,82. On Saturday, he reached a 2.04,55 in his signature event, the 200 breast. Scoring at these championships is done using Fina points. The high scorers this year: for the 7th time in a row on women side, SG Essen won, led by Dorothea Brandt, Isabelle Härle, and Caroline Ruhnau. SV Potsdam, featuring Christian Diener and Yannick Lebherz, among others, is the new men’s champion.
Diener highlighted this 2 day event with a 1:51,98 in 200 back. Last year his best was a 1.49,14, but at this time of the year with German LC nationals around the corner in about 8 weeks, this was a good swim and 850 Fina Points for the team.
Back in the pool this weekend was Hungarian top swimmer Zsuzsanna Jacobos, competing for German club SV Würzburg 05. She helped Würzburg to a second place finish – closer to the winning team SG Essen than in past years. Among several other Hungarians on this team was 13 year old Fanni Gyurinovics , born 10/24/2001 – with remarkable swims in 200 IM (2.15,12) and 100 free (55,98).
In contrast to this very young swimmer, SG Essen coach Mitja Zastrow (36 years old), an Olympic Silver medalist in 2004 with the Netherlands 400 free relay, jumped into the pool for a 100 and 200 back, one of the more memorable events of the meet.
