Sjostrom Lands #1 Ranking with 52.5 100 Free at Stockholm Open

2017 SWIM OPEN STOCKHOLM

  • Saturday, April 8 – Tuesday, April 11, 2017
  • Stockholm, Sweden
  • Live results

Swedish Olympic champ Sarah Sjostrom blasted her way to #1 in the world in the 100 free final on day 4 of the 2017 Stockholm Open. Sjostrom won the race in 52.54, touching nearly a second ahead of teammate Michelle Coleman (53.38). Sjostrom moved to the top of the rankings ahead of Australia’s Cate Campbell (52.78), while Coleman is now ranked 5th in the world.

Fellow Swede Jennie Johansson made her way to the top of the world rankings in the 100 breast. Johansson won the race in 1:06.30, knocking a few tenths off her former best 1:06.63. That moves her ahead of the former leading time of 1:06.44 done by Spain’s Jessica Vall.

Germany’s Franziska Hentke  also earned a #1 ranking with her performance in the 200 fly. Hentke dropped a 2:06.84 to win the final, taking down the former world-leading mark of 2:06.92 done by Japan’s Hiroko Makino. Picking up silver behind her was Hungarian iron lady Katinka Hosszu (2:08.05).

On the men’s side, Germany’s Philip Heintz came up with a #1 ranking in the 200 IM. Heintz, a 2016 Olympic finalist in the event, rocked a 1:57.81 to bring home the gold. With that, he dethroned Japan’s Kosuke Hagino (1:58.07) in the current world rankings.

Day 4 Event Winners:

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IMs for days
6 years ago

She’s always been fast in season, but she seems to always improve on her earlier performances in the big meets. She may have more of a freestyle focus this year, but based on her 56.2 100 fly, I thinkbshe has more in store for us this season. Remeber, this is the same girl who took the 50 fly record down by 6 tenths so…

Prickle
6 years ago

I said it before and am ready to repeat again: when she is so ahead of competition at her key events (50,100 fly/free) it is so tempting to add another medal where the field doesn’t promise to be strong. Sjostrom’s recent races showed that 1:53.8 – 1:54.1 is the time that she is quite capable to make. I’m not a historian but I think that 5 individual gold medals at major competition hasn’t made anybody who wasn’t an IMer. If I was Katie Ledecky I wouldn’t trust Sjostrom’s words of not going to compete at 200 free to the moment I don’t see her at starting blocks.

Dan
Reply to  Prickle
6 years ago

An article stated that she has changed her stroke with her new coach. Don’t think the 200 will be part of her events any more, although she has been 4:06.0 in the 400 so the 200 could still be pretty good, but most likely only on a relay.

Prickle
Reply to  Dan
6 years ago

4:06 was in 2014. Since then the best was 4:13. Should we expect some progress at 200 because of significant improvement at her sprint events? Probably no, since the focus was made on the initial part of the distance and there is no guarantee that she will be able to maintain sufficient speed during 200m race after strong start. But she is in great form now and with high probability we can expect 1:54 low or even 1:54 flat. At the end she is very consistent at 200 free and has six under 1:55 performances.
Now imagine that Katie Ledecky doesn’t compete at 200 this summer. Will Sjostrom miss the opportunity to pick up the gold medal just by… Read more »

john26
6 years ago

To be perfectly honest, I expected slightly more from Sjostrom after her performance yesterday. That said, based on where her 10fly is, I think we can expect a bit more from this 100free. If you look at where her 50free is (faster than C1), and where her 200free has been (much faster than C1), I’m inclined to think that Sjostrom has been underswimming her 100free. I’m not saying she has another .8 left like in her 100fly, but I do think that sort of time is within her athletic repertoire at some point.

Excited to see more.

Prickle
Reply to  john26
6 years ago

John, we all are excited to see more, but let me help you with some numbers about Sarah Sjostrom.
Before this spring her best freestyle season was 2014 when she set her personal bests
At 50 – 23.98
100 – 52.67
200 – 1:53.64 (relay, rt – 0.32)

At this meet
50 – 23.83
100 – 52.54
200 – ??????
Pretty much in line.

DDias
Reply to  Prickle
6 years ago

I am excited to see what type of 100 free she will blast when fully prepared.She told she will have a totally sprint oriented training set, and she expected a much better 100 free than at Olympics.Time will tell.

Prickle
Reply to  DDias
6 years ago

@DDIAS:
The following maybe of some interest to you.
Sarah Sjostrom of 2014:
52.67: 0.74 – 25.72 – 26.95 (!)

Sarah Sjostrom of 2017:
52.54: 0.75 – 25.17 – 27.37

Completely different Sarah. Do I see some room for improvement when she is fully prepared? I think I do.
Sarah of 2014 reminds me Penny Oleksiak and there were no improvements with such style for two years. Now she is trying something different and it is working.

Joe
Reply to  Prickle
6 years ago

Good observation. She actually said that she needed to change tactics and take the race out harder. So she gave it a go yesterday. Didn’t quite bring it home last 10 meters, but obviously still paid off. I can definitely see her do 25.2 – 27.0 för a 52.2. She was speaking with a bit of a cracked voice earlier in the meet just coming off a cold, we don’t know how much that affected. 100 should have more room for improvement than the 50 anyway, her 50 looked really good throughout and it’s all about tiny details to shave anything more off.

She’s gonna swim quite a bit before Words. A competition in Norway, the Mare Nostrum series… Read more »

swimz14
6 years ago

Who is Sweden’s best female backstroker? Seems like they could put together a solid MR with Johansson, Sjostrom, and Coleman.

Joe
Reply to  swimz14
6 years ago

Sjostrom is. But Coleman swam 1.00.2 this meet. Coleman-Johansson-Sjostrom-Hansson is the most likely MR team. Other option is Lindborg-Johansson-Sjostrom-Coleman. Hansson could in theory swim backstroke aswell but she never seems to swim it in LC.

Human Ambition
Reply to  Joe
6 years ago

MC-JJ-SS-LH?

He Gets It Done Again
6 years ago

That’s a NR for Sjöström

Dan
Reply to  He Gets It Done Again
6 years ago

Also makes her the 4th fastest ever behind the Campbell sisters and Britta Steffen

Joe
6 years ago

Funny how it works out. Johansson put all her focus on 100 last year and couldn’t drop the time necessary to make the Olympic final. Now back focusing on the 50 to try and defend her world title there she’s scores a huge 100 PB.

Hswimmer
6 years ago

They’re zoomin over there!!! Sarah ain’t playin post Rio!! Simone better have something this weekend!

E Gamble
Reply to  Hswimmer
6 years ago

Simone had better have what? This is an Area Pro Series meet in the middle of hard training. She and Katie Ledecky just spent their spring break at the OTC. I’d be suprised if she has much this weekend.

Dan
Reply to  Hswimmer
6 years ago

What you do in Budapest in July is what matters unless you swim a World Record, then you are remembered and sometimes that is not enough.

I digress and will probably get some negatives.

In 2000 a lot of people said that DeBruijn came out of nowhere and that her times where unrealistic and some accused her of cheating. Most of those people probably did not look at the world rankings and results, if they had, they would have seen that DeBruijn was ranked #1 in the world in 1998, and 1999 and that she set World Records prior to the Olympics in 2000. Since the World Champs had been in Jan. 1998 and the Olympics took place in… Read more »

a_trojan
Reply to  Dan
6 years ago

and Sarah has been the fastest at the right time, see her Olympic gold

Dan
Reply to  a_trojan
6 years ago

and I hope she is again, but that if someone is fast now or not might not mean they will be fast, or not, in Budapest. See how many that set World Records a little before the Olympics and then not win a medal. Popov in the 50 Free (2000), Cate C. in the 100 Free (2016) etc

Johnj
Reply to  Dan
6 years ago

Inge was cheating. No question

About Lauren Neidigh

Lauren Neidigh

Lauren Neidigh is a former NCAA swimmer at the University of Arizona (2013-2015) and the University of Florida (2011-2013). While her college swimming career left a bit to be desired, her Snapchat chin selfies and hot takes on Twitter do not disappoint. She's also a high school graduate of The …

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