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

Pellegrini Federica Italy

2019 Swim Open Stockholm

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.

2018-2019 LCM MEN 200 BREAST

AntonRUS
CHUPKOV
07/26
2.06.12 *WR
2Matthew
WILSON
AUS2.06.6707/25
3Ippei
WATANABE
JPN2.06.7307/26
4Zach
Stubblety-Cook
AUS2.07.3607/26
5James
WILBY
GBR2.07.4904/19
View Top 26»

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.

2018-2019 LCM WOMEN 200 FREE

2Ariarne
Titmus
AUS1.54.2707/25
3Emma
McKEON
AUS1.54.5506/11
4Sarah
SJOSTROM
SWE1.54.7807/24
5Siobhan
HAUGHEY
HKG1.54.9807/24
View Top 26»

Runner-up was Hungary’s Katinka Hosszuwho 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.

2018-2019 LCM WOMEN 50 FLY

2Holly
BARRATT
AUS25.3108/16
3Ranomi
KROMOWIDJOJO
NED25.3507/27
4Farida
OSMAN
EGY25.4707/27
5Kelsi
DAHLIA
USA25.4807/27
View Top 26»

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.

2018-2019 LCM MEN 400 FREE

SunCHN
YANG
07/21
3.42.44
2Mack
HORTON
AUS3.43.1707/21
3Gabriele
DETTI
ITA3.43.2307/21
4Danas
RAPSYS
LTU3.43.3605/12
5Jack
McLOUGHLIN
AUS3.44.3406/09
6Elijah
WINNINGTON
AUS3.44.6804/07
7Marco
DE TULLIO
ITA3.44.8607/21
8Alexandr
KRASNYKH
RUS3.45.5504/08
9Florian
WELLBROCK
GER3.45.5904/12
10Ji
XINJIE
CHN3.45.6407/21
View Top 26»

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.

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Steve
5 years ago

Coleman missed the world championship cut by 0.02 seconds !

Joe
5 years ago

Not that she will swim it at the Worlds but she was definitely looking for something more in the 200. Was well ahead of Titmus WL time at the 100 mark and in PB range at 150. She ultimately needed a closing 29 flat split(Titmus was 29.02) but was over 30.

Andy Dwyer
5 years ago

Just wanted to mention that many results by german swimmers in your rankings are from 2018. The likes of Muhlleitner, Zellman or Kohler. Kohler didn’t swam a 15:57 in 2019.

CHMI
Reply to  Andy Dwyer
5 years ago

This applies to other swimmers as well. These rankings always look at the season, in this case 2018-2019.

SwimJon
5 years ago

as you waited for her 50fly time…25:34

Lille
Reply to  SwimJon
5 years ago

Do it better yourself.

SwimJon
Reply to  Lille
5 years ago

are you out of your mind?? is my post critical in any way? In an earlier edition of the article the wording was “patiently waits for her time in 50 fly” and I provided it before the article got updated. No need to go trolling Lille.

Dan
Reply to  SwimJon
5 years ago

Sounds wired to say but her stroke and underwater looked off. Post race she said that her timing is off right now, she still swam fast enough to win.

Lille
5 years ago

Incredible! She also got some involuntary gulp of water the first 50 and said it was difficult to recover after.

Hswimmer
5 years ago

Here comes an article saying how sjostrom beat Ledecky

Honest Observer
Reply to  Hswimmer
5 years ago

Actually, I think Titmus won the race.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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