Sarah Sjostrom took the world by storm in 2009 when she won the 100 butterfly at the World Championships in Rome at the age of 15. It took her until 2013 in Barcelona to once again reach the top of the podium at a major international competition, but since that time there has been no looking back. Heading into the day Sjostrom ranked first in the world in the 50 freestyle, 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly and this evening she became the first woman in history to swim under 24 seconds in a textile suit.
Sjostrom won the women’s 50 freestyle in a time of 23.98 breaking Therese Alshammar‘s meet record of 24.50 set in 2012. Although she does become the first woman to go under 24 seconds in a textile suit she still has yet to match Alshammar’s world record of 23.88, which she set in a polyurethane suit in 2009.
Michelle Coleman finished second in the event with a time of 25.08 followed by Josefin Lindkvist who picked up the bronze in a time of 25.55.
Coleman went on to pick up the gold in the 100 backstroke hitting the wall in a time of 1:01.34. It did not match her season’s best of 1:00.58, which is also the national record, but was fast enough to break Sjostrom’s 2010 meet record of 1:01.74. Ida Lindborg, who kept Coleman from sweeping the backstroke events by winning the 50 on the first evening of competition, finished second in a time of 1:02.24.
She was followed by Therese Svendsen who finished third in a time of 1:03.36.
Johannes Skagius took the men’s 50 breaststroke in a time of 27.86. Skagius broke Martin Gustavsson‘s 2008 meet record of 27.93. Gulliver Koch finished second in a time of 28.49 followed by Niklas Tour who finished in a time of 28.69.
Stina Gardell dominated the women’s 400 IM by winning the event by almost 10 seconds. Gardell was quite far off her meet record of 4:42.20 and even farther off her national record of 4:38.76, winning the event in a time of 4:47.56.
Christoffer Carlsen won the first of two extremely exciting races. Carlsen took the men’s 50 backstroke in a time of 26.17, one one-hundredth of a second ahead of Simon Sjodin and six one-hundredths of a second ahead of Alexander Nystrom. Sjodin won the silver in a time of 26.18 while Nystrom collected the bronze in a time of 26.23.
The men’s 400 freestyle was the second thriller of the evening with Gustav Lejdstrom and Adam Paulsson finishing within two tenths of a second of each other. Paulsson lead Lejstrom by over a second at the half way point, but by the 300 meter mark Lejdstrom had pulled within three tenths of a second of Paulsson. Eventually Lejdstrom took the lead and won the event in a time of 3:56.80 followed by Paulsson who touched in a time of 3:56.99.
Full results can be found here.
