Sjöström Shines, Two Swedish Nat’l Records Fall in Stockholm

2017 SWIM OPEN STOCKHOLM

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

Tonight was big for Sweden, as Sarah Sjöström had a huge swim in the 100 fly. Going 56.26, she claimed the top spot in the world rankings this year. You can read more about that swim here.

Two Swedish men cracked national records tonight, too. Erik Persson, who had a statement swim last night dropping a 2:07 in the 200 breast, broke the Swedish record tonight in the 100 breast. Though he got 2nd, his time of 1:00.39 took a sizable chunk out of the old record of 1:00.85 done in 2013 by Johannes Skagius. Winning the event was Lithuania’s Giedrius Titenis at 1:00.15. Skagius wound up fifth in that race (1:01.38).

Gustav Hökfelt was the other Swede to break a national record tonight. In the 50 back, he went 25.34, taking .12 off of the old record of 25.46 set in 2008 by Pontus Renholm.

The Swedes were far from done, though, claiming two other individual wins tonight. In the 50 breast, Jennie Johansson was the only woman sub-31 with a 30.57 to win over her countrymate Sophie Hansson (31.41). Rikke Moller Pedersen of Denmark settled for third (31.45). Michelle Coleman earned the win in the 100 back, going 1:00.28 to knock off Katinka Hosszu (1:00.59).

Hosszu, known for taking on outrageous event schedules that often include multiple back-to-back swims, really loaded up today. She swam all four women’s events, making the A final in each of them except for the 50 breast, where she was just 28th in prelims. Hosszu finished off the podium in the 100 fly, but in addition to her 2nd place swim in the 100 back, she won the 400 IM. The time, 4:40.90, is pedestrian for the world record holder, but she did win the event by over ten seconds. It looks like she’s going for podium finishes, not necessarily big times, at this meet.

Poland’s Wojciech Wojdak took a comfortable win in the men’s 1500 free, going 14:54.07 to finish well ahead of Norway’s Henrik Christiansen (14:59.56). Wojdak’s time puts him at #3 in the world this year, behind only Italians Gregorio Paltrinieri and Gabriele Detti.

Other winners

• Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys won the men’s 200 free, going 1:47.10. That time is exact .01 faster than GBR’s James Guy‘s season best, slotting Rapsys at #6 in the world this year.
• Taking the men’s 100 fly was Germany’s Philip Heintz in 52.12.