Watch Arno Kamminga Become World’s 4th Fastest 200 Breaststroker

ROTTERDAM QUALIFICATION MEET (NED)

• Thursday, December 3rd – Sunday, December 6th
• Zwemcentrum Rotterdam, Netherlands
• LCM (50m)
• Olympic Qualifier/European Championships Qualifier
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• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results
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While competing on day 2 of the 2020 Rotterdam Qualification Meet (RQM), 25-year-old Arno Kamminga became the world’s 4th fastest 200m breaststroke performer of all-time.

Touching the wall in a time of 2:06.85, Kamminga not only produced a huge new lifetime test and national record but the European Short Course champion now solidly inserted himself into the conversation of Olympic medalists at the postponed 2020 Olympic Games.

See how Kamminga’s race went down via the video above, courtesy of KNZB. Take note of Kamminga’s relatively fast turnover in this long breaststroke distance, as well as enjoy his emotional celebration at the end.

As originally reported:

Ladies and gentlemen, we have another sub-2:07 200m breaststroke in our midst, as 25-year-old Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands just fired off a massive time of 2:06.85.

While competing in the 2breast final of the 2020 Rotterdam Qualification Meet, the European Short Course Champion busted out a huge new personal best, joining an exclusive club of 2:06ers that only includes current World Record holder Anton Chupkov (2:06.12), Australia’s Matt Wilson (2:06.67) and Japan’s Ippei Watanabe (2:06.67).

Entering this meet, Kamminga’s lifetime best and Dutch national record stood at the 2:07.18 he put up earlier this year at the Antwerp Diamond Race. Already this morning in the heats here in Rotterdam, Kamminga sliced .01 off of that mark to post the top time of the field in 2:07.17.

Taking things to an entirely new gear, however, Kamminga crushed his 2:06.85 en route to defeating the rest of the field by over 2 seconds en route to gold. Splits for his two record-breaking swims from today are as follows:

This morning’s 2:07.17 – 1:01.17/1:06.00

Tonight’s 2:06.85 – 1:00.84/1:06.01

As such, Kamminga is now the world’s 4th fastest perform all-time in this LCM 200m breast event and further solidifies his case to achieve possible Olympic podium status next year in Tokyo.