Sjostrom Fires Off 1:55.29 200 Free & 25.34 50 Fly On Day 1 Stockholm

2019 Swim Open Stockholm

• Friday, April 12th – Monday, April 15th
• Eriksdalsbadet, Stockholm, Sweden
• LCM
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap
• Start Lists
• Results

Olympian Erik Persson powered his way to the top of the podium in the men’s 200m breast tonight, stopping the clock in a time of 2:08.75. That’s slightly under a second off of his own Swedish National Record of 2:07.85 that’s been on the books from this same meet two years ago.

At the 2018 European Championships, Persson only mustered a time of 2:10.25 to take 8th in the final, so tonight’s outing laid waste to that performance, ranking him 11th in the world this season.

Behind Persson tonight was German world champion in this event from 2015, 29-year-old Marco Koch from Germany. Koch produced a silver medal-garnering effort of 2:08.80, just .9 slower than his 2:08.72 from last week’s Bergen Swim Festival that keeps him ranked 9th in the world.

Bronze this evening went to Maximilian Pilger, also from Germany, who hit a new personal best of 2:09.87. His performance now ranks as his first time under the 2:10 threshold, with his previous PB resting at the 2:10.43 from the 2018 Berlin Open.

Sarah Sjostrom was already on the world rankings board with a bit 1:55.44 200m freestyle swim at the Helsinki Meet, the first stop along the 3-meet Nordic Tour which ends with this meet. The Olympic multi-medalist managed to slice .05 off of that previous monster mark to register a winning time of 1:55.39 tonight for gold by a large margin.

Runner-up was Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, who produced a solid 1:57.18, her fastest of the season by .6, while Germany’s Reva Foos took 3rd in 1:57.79.  Of note, Michelle Coleman wound up 5th in 1:58.68, while Dane Signe Bro clocked 1:59.91 for 6th.

Competing in Helsinki, Sjostrom also produced a 57.0 100m fly and 24.2 50m free on the same day as her 1:55.44 200m free, which was simply a stellar collection of performances.

Tonight Sjostrom followed up her 2free with a big-time 25.34 to take the women’s 50m fly over Denmark’s Emilie Beckmann. Beckmann notched 25.89 for silver, while Kimberly Buys took bronze in 26.39.

Beckmann already nailed a World Championships qualifying mark with the 25.89 she put up at the Danish Open.

Sjostrom remains #1 in the world.

Germany collected gold in the form of Florian Wellbrock‘s winning mark of 3:45.59 in the men’s 400m freestyle. Despite earning lane 4 with a morning effort of 3:47.98, Sweden’s Henrik Christiansen fell to 3rd tonight, with Wellbrock and Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys finishing ahead of him.

Rapsys hit the wall in 3:46.83, while Christiansen settled for bronze in 3:46.96.

The 3-way battle to the wall rendered season-best times for each man, with Wellbrock now sitting 6th in the world, Rapsys 8th and Christiansen 9th.

Additional Winners:

• Finnish swimmer Mimosa Jallow won the women’s 50m back race tonight in the only sub-28 second time of the field. Clocking 27.96, Jallow took the meet title in a time just over half a second from her own National Record of 27.42 from last year’s European Championships.
• 3 men were under the 2:00 mark in the 200m backstroke, led by German Christian Diener‘s 1:57.08. Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki was next, albeit finishing 2 seconds behind, in 1:59.08, while Israel’s Yakov Toumarkin rounded out the top 3 in 1:59.48.
• The women’s 1500m free saw German swimmer Sarah Kohler come out on top, finishing with a golden time of 16:06.88. She’s already been as fast as 15:57.85 from the Halle Meet, a time which positions teh German as 3rd in the season’s world rankings.
• Youth Olympic Games silver medalist Tomoe Hvas was just .10 off of his 23.63 PB from Buenos Aires with a winning 50 fly time of 23.73 tonight.