2019 BELGIAN OPEN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, November 9th & Sunday, November 10th
- Lago Gent Rozebroeken, Gent, Belgium
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
The 2019 Belgian Open Short Course Championships wrapped up over the weekend, which means we now know the squad set to represent the nation at this year’s European Short Course Championships set for Glasgow, Scotland on December 4th-8th.
Heading up the small, but mighty 4-person squad is Olympic silver medalist Pieter Timmers. The 31-year-old freestyle ace qualified in both the men’s 50m and 100m freestyle events, having notched efforts of 21.30 and 47.43, respectively, in Gent just days ago.
Timmers will try to upgrade his 100m free silver from the 2017 edition of the Euro Short Course Championships, where he notched a national record of 46.54 to finish behind winner Luca Dotto of Italy.
Also making this year’s squad are Valentine Dumont and Lander Hendrickx, both of whom produced new Belgian national records in Gent.
For Dumont, the 19-year-old’s time of 4:04.55 in the 400m freestyle took down a national record that had been on the books over 18 years. She also qualified for Glasgow in the 100m and 200m free events.
Hendrickx did damage in the men’s 200m back race, hitting the wall in a lifetime best and new Belgian standard of 1:53.75, although even that time fell short of the QT needed for Glasgow, He will be representing Belgium in the 200m and 400m free events, however.
Finally, Florine Gaspard will be competing in the women’s 50m free, 50m breast and 100m breast.
Of note, past European Short Course medalist Fanny Lecluyse has chosen not to compete in Glasgow.
