2016 STOCKHOLM OPEN
- Wednesday March 30th – Saturday April 2nd
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Prelims – 9:30 am local (3:30 am EST/12:30 am PST) Finals – 4:30 pm local (Friday – 4 pm) (10:30 am EST/7:30 PST)
- Results
Swedish star Sarah Sjöström has had an extremely impressive Stockholm Open so far taking the 50 butterfly in a 25.15, the 100 butterfly in a 55.68 and the 200 freestyle in a 1:54.87. Sjöström continued to perform well posting a 24.22 to win the women’s 50 freestyle on the third night of competition.
She was five one-hundredths of a second off her season’s best of 24.17, which she posted in January at the Arena Pro Series in Austin. Although she was still a ways from her lifetime best of 23.98 her time in tonight’s final was the fifth fastest that Sjöström has ever recorded in the event.
Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus finished second in a time of 24.71. Herasimenia’s time ties Brazilian Etiene Medeiros and American Madison Kennedy for the seventh fastest time in the world. Sjötröm’s Swedish teammate Therese Alshammar finished third in a time of 24.96.
Russian Andrey Grechin won the men’s 100 freestyle in a time of 49.18. Isak Eliasson finished second in a time of 49.39, setting a new Swedish junior record in the event. Eliasson destroyed his lifetime best of 50.66 by over a second.
Ari-Pekka Liukkonen of Finland finished third in the event putting up a time of 49.61. Liukkonen was just off of his Finnish record of 49.44, which he set last weekend in Helsinki.
Simon Sjödin of Sweden took the men’s 200 butterfly in a time of 1:57.43. Sjödin’s time was the fourth fastest that he has ever recorded and was not far off his national record of 1:57.01 or his textile best of 1:57.14. Evgeny Koptelov of Russia finished second in a time of 1:58.16 followed by Stefanos Dimitriadis of Greece who hit the wall in a time of 1:59.43.
Viktoria Zeynep Gunes of Turkey won the women’s 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:23.97, which is the fastest she has been in the new calendar year. Jenna Laukkanen of Finland finished second in a time of 2:27.24 followed by Jessica Eriksson of Sweden who posted a 29.22.
Italian Federico Turrini took the men’s 400 IM with relative ease, touching in a time of 4:17.45. The race for silver was an intense dual between Adam Paulsson of Sweden and Henrik Christiansen of Norway who were both chasing their country’s national records. Paulsson eventually hit the wall first in a time of 4:20.33 followed by Christiansen who touched in a time of 4:20.34. Although Paulsson got the best of Christiansen he missed Simon Sjöin’s national mark of 4:19.68 while Christiansen broke his own Norwegian record of 4:21.67.
Apostolos Christou of Greece won the men’s 100 backstroke in a time of 54.59 followed by Tomasz Polewka of Poland won posted a 55.73 and Matteo Milli of Italy who hit the wall in a time of 55.80.
This morning she posted a 53.4 in the prelims of the 100 free. Make sure you have your popcorn ready tonight!
Can’t wait to see women’s swimming in Rio. Should be much more exciting than 2012.
On another note… Therese Alshammar still going strong at 38… Incredible.
24.2 at her tapered meet? I still see her better medal chance as the 200… Also more tiring, but her big race will be out the way so why not go for it… I want to see somebody take it to Ledecky and I feel only Sjöström can turn at 150m with clear water on her, say 1.24.2ish…
Considering she can just about go that in fly, not that great. But that woman is FAST.
Out of the five events she has, I rank the 50 free as her worst by some margin. It’s too short to make up for her start, which is getting better but is inconsistent and not at the level of the specialists. Evidently if you look at her championship record, she has no 50 free gold at any international level. She always comes up a bit short to more rested swimmers, girls like Halsall, Kromowidjojo and Campbell sisters swim a lot less leading into the 50, so they have the upper hand. That said it’s a good bonus to have a fourth olympic event that is still so good that you could medal.
In Rio the sprint freestylers will be… Read more »
I thought she won 2014 euros?
No, Halsall won.